


Paradox Space Wars Book 1: Knights of Space

by gingerinafez



Series: Paradox Space Wars [1]
Category: Homestuck, Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Star Wars Setting, Ancestors, Homestuck AU, Homestuck Ancestors, OCs - Freeform, The Phantom Menace, Young Signless, jedistuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-20
Updated: 2016-07-28
Packaged: 2018-06-09 12:56:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 15
Words: 24,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6908149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gingerinafez/pseuds/gingerinafez
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Something bad is happening.”<br/>She turned to face him, raising one immaculate eyebrow. “Have you felt something?”<br/>Psiioniic adjusted his visor before holding up both his grey pinkies. Two faint lines of energy crackled between the digits, one red, and one blue. Dolorosa let out a minute sigh. The last time those two lines had appeared they’d been stuck on a very dark, very dangerous planet for a week. It was not going to be a good day.</p><p>Jedi Knights Dolorosa and Psiioniic have been sent to the small planet of Naboo to negotiate with the Trade Federation over a shipping route dispute. When things do not go as planned, the two knights are thrown into a political frenzy, escaping to a desert planet to protect a queen. It's on that hot, rock of a planet Tatooine that they find an unexpected little boy...</p><p>Yes, this is a Star Wars au of the Phantom Menace. It is the first installment of the Paradox Space Wars series. All seven, and counting, Star Wars rewrites are in the works. Part two, Witches of Heart, is posted. Enjoy!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. An Extremely Boring Mission

**Author's Note:**

> First, thank you so much for reading. I do have all eight movies outlined and I know I can do this. If you have any questions about this AU, feel free to ask!

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…

  
Turmoil has engulfed the Galactic Republic. The taxation of trade routes to outlaying star systems is in dispute.  
Hoping to resolve the matter with a blockade of deadly battleships, the greedy Trade Federation has stopped all shipping to the small planet of Naboo.  
While the congress of the Republic endlessly debates this alarming chain of events, the Supreme Chancellor has secretly dispatched two Jedi Knights, the guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy, to settle the conflict.....

 

The waiting room was nice but that didn’t change the fact that they were still waiting. Psiioniic glanced at his master. Her delicate, sharp finger nails traced the rim of the stainless silver cup on the table between them. Around and around and around… it was extremely boring to watch, just like it was extremely boring to wait on an extremely boring ship on extremely boring mission.

He took in the stark blankness of the Federation ship for the hundredth time and noted again how unsatisfyingly colorless it all was, so he turned back to the window of stars and the forest planet below them.

“Have you ever been to Naboo, Master?” Psiioniic questioned.

Dolorosa inclined her head ever so slightly in his direction. Everything about her, from the curve of her high cheekbones to the point of her horns was like her fingernails, even her words. Her green tinted lips parted, “Yes.” Delicate, and sharp.

Of course she’d say nothing more, she never did. In all his years training with her he still had yet to adjust to her regal ways. Still, if she’d taught him anything, it was that persistence and patience dance hand in hand. He let an appropriate amount of time pass looking out into the stars before speaking again.

“Something bad is happening.”

She turned to face him, raising one immaculate eyebrow. “Have you felt something?”

Psiioniic adjusted his visor before holding up both his grey pinkies. Two faint lines of energy crackled between the digits, one red, and one blue. Dolorosa let out a minute sigh. The last time those two lines had appeared they’d been stuck on a very dark, very dangerous planet for a week. It was not going to be a good day.

As if on que, the silver doors behind them slid open with a pneumonic hiss, and the rain of laser fire began. In a flash Psiioniic’s lightsabers were in his hands, deflecting the blasts from the droids and cutting them down in a second. He whipped around. Dolorosa’s long fingers continued their endless laps around the cup.

“Really?” he asked.

She rose and smoothed her long black and green ensemble. “I knew you could handle it,” she said, raising a hand. He turned just in time to see a fourth droid fly backwards into two others. “We need to move.”

 

Long, metallic hallways were filling with droids. The pair danced through them. Well, Dolorosa danced. Psiioniic could see it out of the corner of his visor, the way she gracefully bobbed and weaved between the robots, green lightsaber swinging in one hand, the other out in open air, using the Force as a waltzing partner. The battlefield was her ballroom.

He, on the other hand, charged. Literally, streams of energy crackled up and down his spine as the two weapons in his hands swung in perfect symmetry. If he wanted to, he could blast this ship to pieces. He could take out the entire blockade with a single thought. Well, he took that back as he thrust both blades backwards, taking out another two droids, maybe not one thought. Dolorosa continued down the corridor. Maybe two or three. Psiioniic ran after her. Five at the most.

They reached a heavy, solid set of doors that lead to what was supposed to be the negotiation chambers. Dolorosa gently put a finger to it, and the door began to creak open. He could have blasted it down if he wanted to, but that could kill someone on the other side. Psiioniic turned to cover the hallway while his master coaxed the Force into opening the door.

“We’ve got company.”

Five nasty looking droidekas rolled into the space before them. Dolorosa readied her saber. Psiioniic took a step away from her, as the energy crackling around his horns grew more violent. She didn’t even glance at him, but he heard her gently whisper, “You’re stronger than it.”

They charged as the battle droids stared firing. A barrage of noise and red laser fire bombarded them. Dolorosa spun around Psiioniic and whispered impossibly clear in the heat of battle, “Cover me.”

Psiioniic whirled around; his back his master and faced all five droids alone. She would never have been able to deflect so much fire with one saber, but it was no walk in the park for him either. In fact, it wasn’t even a run in the park. It was more of a fast paced sprint you do when running for your life from a bear, in a park. The droids pressed in. He fell back another foot, and another, and another. Red and blue sparks jumped off the end of each saber. Too much adrenaline…

“Up,” a voice commanded. Without thinking, he thrust himself towards the ceiling to be pulled into a ventilation shaft by Dolorosa. She held a hand in front of her face for a moment. Psiioniic scowled as she forced his energy away from her face in the tight space. After a moment the energy settled a bit, and she began to crawl.

A consistent _ping_ ing noise followed them through the shaft. Psiioniic’s scowl morphed into a grimace as his energy bounced off the walls. It had reduced, but not as much as either of them would have liked. Dolorosa held up a hand when a window of light fell on her queenly face. She beckoned him to look.

Outside the ventilation shaft was a hanger and in that hanger displayed lines and lines of moving parts, of droids, of soldiers.

“They have an army,” he breathed.

Dolorosa gave a small nod, careful not to let her impressive horns scrape the vent roof. “We must warn Naboo.” Psiioniic nodded.

They followed the vent above an impressive droid cruiser and dropped silently into a hatch on the top of the ship. Inside was dozens of folded droids, ready for transport, but unaware of the two figures stowing away in a storage compartment.

Dolorosa and Psiioniic sat quietly in the dark space. Psiioniic held his pinkies before him. The two lines of energy crackled to life once again. They weren’t out of this yet. He clasped his hands in his lap, but they still shook. He flinched when the gentle pressure of Dolorosa’s unseen hands rested themselves on his.

“You did well, my Padawan,” her motherly voice came from out of the darkness. He knew what was coming next; she always said it after he almost lost control. “I’ll make a Jedi out of you yet.”

He allowed a smile as the ship lurched, and the weight of her hands left his.

 

 

 


	2. Guard Duty

 A crash. Bark splintered off the tree inches from Psiioniic’s face. He fell into a crouch. Another red laser streaked past him and he was running again. Dolorosa was nowhere to be seen but undoubtedly somewhere in the trees above. His boots pounded on the damp forested floor as he sprinted away from the fire. Two droids on speeders were in pursuit close behind.

They had gone unnoticed for about a minute when they entered Naboo’s atmosphere before something picked them up. Be it the Force or some other reason, the droid ship landed prematurely in a forested area to inspect the ship. The moment the dozens of droids activated they fled.

Most of them were easy to lose, but these two were persistent little things. Dolorosa had told him to run and so he did. It wasn’t a park, but those speeders were equivalent to bears in his book. Bears with lasers, and annoying voices.

 _Pew! Pew!_ More shots rang out as he ran, dodging branches, bushes, and dense leaves. Whatever his master was doing, she was sure taking her damn time with it. Psiioniic leapt over a fallen log, swatted a leafy obstacle away, practically skipped over a small stream, and crashed right into a wall of muscle.

“Ah!”

Who yelled, he didn’t know. All he could focus on was the spiraling hill he and his new friend were tumbling down. Various grunts mixed in with the laser fire above them until they landed with a hard splash into a muddy lakeshore at the bottom of the hill.

“My- my apologies!” Psiioniic heard. Whoever he had slammed into was more coherent than him. He rolled over onto his back only to look up and see a mountain of a troll standing over him. “Sir,” he was saying, “those droids are not allowed in this part of the planet. You have done us a great service.” 

“Yeah, yeah… great service, huh?” Psiioniic sat up. “I don’t know what it’s like here, but pushing someone down a hill isn’t really worth praise where I come from.”

The troll’s rippling muscles contracted and relaxed while he wrung his hands. He sported very plain, square glasses and had arrows for horns. When he spoke again, his voice practically dripped with guilt. “Well, if not for your friend, those droids may have gotten through.”

Psiioniic spotted Dolorosa destroying the droids’ tracking devices a few feet away. The troll between them continued. “I was-“he stopped, and began wringing his hands again, “I _should_ have been on guard duty. But…” he trailed off.

“But what?” Psiioniic groaned, standing.                                            

“But I was too preoccupied with a… project I’ve been working on. A sort of bow. It’s quite special you see…” his hands struggled to convey the words he couldn’t find, but when he looked to see if they were understanding, he realized that they didn’t, nor did they care. With a curt nod more to himself than anyone else, he finished, “I was distracted on duty and you have saved my honor. If caught, I’d have been suspended from the guard permanently. This was my last offense.”  He paused. “I swear on my honor, I will repay you for this kindness.”

Psiioniic raised an eyebrow at Dolorosa. His mouth opened an inch in questioning, but her head lowered an inch to silence him. She put on an elegant smile and stepped towards the guard. “We graciously accept your offer to help us,” she said softly.

“Uhh… how may I… be of assistance?” he stammered.

“Transport to the central city should suffice thank you…?” She looked him over.

“Uh, Darkleer is my name. I am indebted to you so I will humbly help you on your way.” He shuffled his feet for a moment. Psiioniic watched him chew on the inside of his cheek, and followed the direction of Darkleer’s glasses to the cut on his arm.

“What, you got a problem with blood?” Psiioniic stepped forward. Darkleer puffed his enormous chest out an inch further.

“It’s… yellow,” he said through clenched teeth. 

“Dolorosa, what are we doing with this asshole?” Psiioniic asked.

She inclined her head. He wiped the scowl off his face, and asked correctly, “How are we going to get to Theed to warn Queen Leijon about the Trade Federation?”

Dolorosa squinted at Darkleer. “I believe you swore on your honor sir, time to prove your word.”

 

It had been a long and silent walk to Darkleer’s city. His tight jaw indicated his animosity every step of the way. When they reached the meadow, he told them to wait for him just beyond the wood. Psiioniic and Dolorosa watched as he tip toed between rocks in the field, and then jumped into a hole that neither of them had noticed.

“Where the hell does he think he’s going?” Psiioniic sighed as he sat back. Dolorosa remained standing.

“His people are very fond of ancient troll society. They still believe in the hemospectrum, the societal rolls assigned to each color. As you very well know, thousands of years ago, our whole race mirrored the very same class ruled culture beneath our very feet.”

Psiioniic frowned at his boots. “The city is underground?”

Dolorosa nodded. “Pockets of trolls exist all across the galaxy still following the old ways. Most of them on the outer rim, like this little colony. I’ve kept an eye on it for a while, now.”

Psiioniic looked out into the meadow and thought before speaking. He didn’t know how Dolorosa did it. Every word she said had a reason to be spoken out loud. Every action was deliberate. Yet, she somehow avoided a mechanical appearance. The small yet constant furrow of her brow somehow made her more tangible than most people. She wasn’t a god, she was something scarier. She was reality.

“When the ship started going down, you knew it’d be impossible to get to the city without help, and that help would be impossible without leverage, so you had me run.”

She gave a nod. He wanted to scoff, but there was no point. She’d just been smart, nothing wrong with that.

As they waited for Darkleer, Psiioniic stewed about the blood color jab. It made his skin crawl. There were descent trolls all across the galaxy, it was only on the out rim when scum like Darkleer cared about his blood. It was… barbaric. It was wrong. It was-

“Psiioniic,” Dolorosa said her tone hot with warning. Psiioniic looked down to see his hands crackling.

“Sorry, Master.”

She nodded, and then looked around. Darkleer emerged from the trees behind them. He gave them a sad sneer. “I will be accompanying you to the central city of Theed to see that the ship in my possession does not get destroyed,” he announced.

Dolorosa gave him a soft smile and followed the guard through a little thicket. Psiioniic took a moment to stay behind, clenching his fists so not to let the pent up energy inside him out. He took a deep breath, and then followed.

A short walk away waited a long, low silver ship. Like a flying insect, with high arches and low curves in the right places, it was perfectly streamlined to cut through the stratosphere. He stepped into the craft behind Darkleer and Dolorosa, and held back a “shouldn’t I be driving?” quip.

Instead, he asked Darkleer, “So, what’s a bad guy like you have to do to get a nice ship like this?”

Darkleer flipped a few switches and ignored him at the same time. Dolorosa frowned at Psiioniic, then turned to their pilot, and rephrased the question.

“Darkleer, for all our safety, please do inform us how you acquired the ship.”

His fists clenched on the yoke. “I misinformed my officials about a routine sweep of the area. We must be back before sunset.”

“Thank you. I think you’ll come to see this matter of roaming droids is far bigger than all of us.”

Darkleer didn’t respond, and kept his eyes on the clear blue sky before them.


	3. Queen Leijon

 

During his Jedi training Psiioniic got to see much more of the galaxy than he’d ever hoped for. As a young troll, living in the lowest levels of Coruscant, bright neon had been only sky available to him. Then one day a tall woman, looking very out of place in the grime and grit of the undercity, had found him, smiled very kindly, and told him he was special.

He’d tried to run of course. Being special meant being different and being different meant being exploited. She hadn’t tried to chase him. In fact, she was waiting for him when he got back his pathetic little cardboard box with tea and baked treats. The woman made the little shelter look like a home. It was in that box that she offered him the opportunity of a lifetime.

Now, sailing through the clouds into the central city of Naboo, he was reminded just how beautiful the galaxy was and why he wanted to protect it. The city was built of elegant, domed buildings. Flashes of metals gleamed in the late sunlight. Clouds far on the horizon were just beginning to turn the lightest shade of peach and all of this was reflected by the wide rivers cutting through the cityscape.

Psiioniic glanced at their pilot. Darkleer’s expression remained unimpressed as he lowered them to land on the river. His master was as stoic as ever. He had no idea what she may or may not be thinking.

They landed smoothly. Surrounding them on all sides were empty streets. Darkleer fiddled with the parking mechanism.

“Don’t,” Dolorosa commanded.                                                     

Darkleer scoffed, “Excuse me?”

She pointed to their left. A squadron of droids was marching right in their direction. “We have to move, now.” She strode to the door purposefully, clicked a button, and didn’t ever bother glancing back. Psiioniic went to follow, but turned again to the dash.

“Come on!” he hissed at Darkleer.

Darkleer’s fingers reached for the parking mechanism one more time, but pulled away. Head down, he followed to.

The three of them stole off into a shadowed alleyway and watched the droids’ captain steer them towards the drifting craft. Muscles in Darkleer’s neck strained as he clenched his jaw tighter and tighter.

Before he could protest, Dolorosa started walking again, and so did Psiioniic. He heard Darkleer crack his knuckled before joining them too.

The city was even more beautiful from the ground. Too bad all the roaming droids detracted from that beauty. They had no place among the brick walls and climbing plants. Dolorosa didn’t stop to admire the scenery, only to avoid passing droids. She must have known the city well. Within twenty minutes, they were scaling a wall into a palace courtyard.

The scent hit him first. Pollen from flowers Psiioniic couldn’t name bloomed throughout the garden. Next was the sound. Bird calls and babbling water. Now that the sun was setting, it was as if the whole palace were aglow.

Not that he had the time to admire it. Dolorosa stopped but for a moment to get her bearings, then strode on. Psiioniic stifled a sigh before following. They crept down an arched corridor when suddenly Dolorosa pressed her body against a wall and held up a hand. Darkleer and Psiioniic flattened themselves in unison.

The corridors lead to an open air courtyard that splintered into four different paths. A guard of eight droids were marching a company of official looking people in shackles away. Between the guards and maidens and other well-dressed individuals marched the Queen Leijon of Naboo. Her chin was a bit higher than the others, and her face all the more pained.

Dolorosa pointed at the four droids in the front, and then to herself. Then, she motioned for to the four in the back and to Psiioniic. And to Darkleer, an outstretched palm. Stay.

With a nod, she ran out into the sunlight. Psiioniic jumped after her, dual lightsabers hacking down the four droids in the back with two sift movements before they could react.

“Your majesty,” he said as he undid her shackled first. She nodded her thanks before he proceeded to the others.

“Thank goodness you’re here,” a guard was saying to Dolorosa. “The city has been occupied by the Trade Federation. We need to move the Queen to safety.”

A pompous looking woman smoothed her blouse and then, in a shrill voice, protested, “What about the negotiations? I thought the Supreme Chancellor was sending ambassadors.”

“I regret to inform you, ma’am,” Dolorosa said, “but we are the ambassadors, and negotiations did not go well.”

“We need to get out here,” Psiioniic said, surveying the walls around them. Darkleer had sulked up to the company. Though his face was still a permanent mask of disgust, the way he fiddled with a few wires in his hands betrayed him.

“Agreed,” said Dolorosa. “Captain, are communications up?”

The troll shook his head. “The Federation took them out this morning, but there are still a few ships in the hanger.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Psiioniic asked.

Everyone looked to the Queen. Her horns were low and wide, like that of a house cat’s ears. When she parted her green lips to speak, he thought he saw fangs. “My approval, young Jedi.” Psiioniic swallowed hard, and lowered his head. Queen Leijon turned to one of her maidens. “What do you think?”

The young maiden looked up with big eyes, and spoke shyly. “Your safety is all our priorities, your highness. I say you abscond.”

The Queen nodded. “Let us go, then.”

 

Dolorosa and the captain lead the company through the palace. Psiioniic stayed in the back of the group, along with Darkleer and made sure the officials went safely to their respective chambers along the way to the hanger.

All the while they moved the handmaidens walked in time with their queen. They wore long green shawls that covered them from head to toe. Psiioniic couldn’t help but wonder what they were for. How much help could a queen need? The only thing that differed from girl to girl was the outline of their horns beneath the head coverings.

The Queen herself was as regal as expected. Her face was unreadable; the painted lines making her look ever more like a doll. Her green robes trailed a good distance behind her. That would be a problem in a fight. Psiioniic kept his lightsabers in his hands, but didn’t activate them.

They reached yet another corridor, but this time the guard crept against the wall. Psiioniic couldn’t see the entire hanger from behind the group, but what he could see was huge and crawling with droids.  Dolorosa peaked around the captain, and then turned back.

“I’ll take care of the pilots, and hold off the droids,” she said. “Psiioniic, lead Queen Leijon and Darkleer to the cruiser in the right corner.”

The Queen spoke before Psiioniic could nod.

“I must have my maidens at my side.”

Psiioniic glanced at the three girls beside her, and before he could protest, Dolorosa gave the Queen an understanding nod, and ran into the corridor. Great.

“Alight! Come on!” he yelled.

He stayed by the Queen’s side as they ran the length of the hanger. The train of her dress didn’t slow her down as they reached the sleek silver cruiser, ready to launch, in the corner of the hanger. Darkleer hit a switch that lowered a ramp as Psiioniic deflected lasers from the surrounding droids. The hanger quickly became a warzone.

“Master!” Psiioniic cried. Dolorosa was corned by a hulking destroyer a hundred yards away. She was holding, but not well. The captain was leading about twenty pilots away from the fire.

Psiioniic turned and ran up the ramp and into the plain white cabin they were waiting in.

“Darkleer!” he barked. The troll looked up. “I’m going to get Dolorosa. Don’t let anybody in this ship until I get back. Are we clear?”

Darkleer stuttered for a moment, glanced at the Queen, then nodded. Psiioniic jumped back out. From the corner of his eye, he saw what looked like a bow appear in Darkleer’s hands.

Smoke and laser fire met him once again as he leapt into the battle. Psiioniic deflected fire left and right as he ran straight for the destroyer pushing Dolorosa further back. Instinctively he took out droids with his sabers as he ran. Ten feet away, Psiioniic heaved himself into the air, concentrating on the tug in his chest as he hurled towards the wheeled destroyer shooting at his master.

The two sabers connected with the robot’s back and sent a flurry of sparks into him as it died. Dolorosa looked up at him for a moment. They were both breathing hard. Psiioniic flipped off the droid’s back as it fell and they were back at it again sprinting towards the cruiser.

Arrows flew from inside the ships ramp, easily taking down the increasing number of droids assailing the ship. Darkleer saw them coming, took a step to the left to let them sprint aboard, and kept firing even while the ramp was closing.

Dolorosa hit a switch in the inside, and the ramp began to close. The Queen and her maidens were already seated and strapped in, waiting. Psiioniic jumped into the cockpit, threw himself into the pilot’s seat, and started the engines.

Dolorosa was right alongside him, gearing up the drives and punching accelerators as he gunned the throttle. Darkleer hit the floor with a heavy _thump_ when the ship rocketed out of the hanger, and into the orange streaked sky.

“How are we going to get past the blockade?” Psiioniic asked as they cleared the pink and orange clouds.

“Captain Panaka already thought of that,” she said. Darkleer groaned from the floor. With the artificial gravity now on, he heaved himself back upright.

Darkleer rubbed his cheek where it had hit the floor and glared at Psiioniic. Psiioniic took a moment to reach down and picked up the fallen glasses next to his seat. As he handed them to him, he said, “Thank you.”

Darkleer kept glaring, but spared a nod before walking into the passenger area with the Queen and her maidens.

Psiioniic steered then into the darkness of space. Now that they were off planet again, the looming Federation star ships could be viewed in full, unobstructed glory.

“Master, and just how are we going to get out of this?” Psiioniic raised his eyebrows.

“Panaka chose this ship because it has exceptionally strong shields. With the aid of strategic choice, flying though here should result in no damage,” she said.

“So we’re just going to fly through and hope for the best?”

 “Well… when you put it that way…”

He gripped the yoke a little tighter.

Psiioniic took a deep breath, resulting in a big sigh, before punching every form of accelerators he could find. The ship zoomed towards a break in two starships. He piloted the craft with ease, zipping past lasers and flying close to the ships enormous gray sides.

“Hyperdrive,” he commanded. Dolorosa pulled back the gears and suddenly the stars elongated around the glass. With a lurch they stopped, deep in space. Dolorosa let out a huge breath and allowed a moment to slump the smallest bit towards back in her chair.

Psiioniic let out a whoop. “Yes!” he exclaimed, punching the air.

Dolorosa looked thoughtfully out into the stars. “What you did back there was very risky.”

“What are you- oh,” Psiioniic said, turning away from her.

“Our main objective was the Queen’s safety and you deliberately risked it when you came to my aid, jeopardizing the entire mission and her life.” She paused for a moment. He looked up at her. “That being said,” she continued in a softer tone, “thank you for saving me.”

Psiioniic allowed himself a smile. He was about to respond, when a blinking red light on the dash caught his eye. “Master, the hyperdrive is leaking.”

Dolorosa frowned, and pulled up a hologram of the ship. The hyperdrive flashed bright red. “We won’t have enough power to get to Coruscant.” With only a small breath of frustration, she stood up and walked into the passenger area.

Darkleer was sitting opposite of Queen Leijon and her maidens. The scene looked it would have been tense had they not just survived a battle together.

“Your majesty,” Dolorosa explained, “our hyperdrive is leaking. I’m afraid we will not have enough power to get to Coruscant.”

Two of the maidens eyes’ widened in response, but the third frowned thoughtfully. She leaned over and whispered something in her queen’s ear. Queen Leijon hadn’t spoken yet, and still showed no surprise or fear to the news.

“What planets are near enough to land?” she asked.

Dolorosa opened up a hologram of a star map and set it before the Queen. Everyone stared at the hundreds of miniature suns and revolving planets that filled up the space.

“What about here?” Psiioniic asked. He pointed to a small, unassuming dot floating near his face. “Tatooine. It’s small. No Federation influence.”

“How can you be sure?” the Queen questioned.

Dolorosa stepped forward to explain. “Tatooine is controlled by a figure named Snowman, a crime lord that rules most of the outer rim. It would be very dangerous, but it looks like our best option.”

They waited for a moment while the Queen eyed the floor. After some thought, she nodded.

Darkleer buried his head in his hands. “Well this is just wonderful.”


	4. Pinkies Mean Bad Days

The little black and white droid was losing its mechanical mind. It whizzed around the passenger cabin of the craft buzzing and beeping in what seemed to be sheer joy. The Queen and her maidens looked amused, Psiioniic and his master curious, and Darkleer on the edge of punching something.

“Will one of you please shut that damn droid up already?” Darkleer asked through clenched teeth.

“Why?” asked the Queen coolly. “It’s only happy it was able to help.” She reached out a hand to the little R2 unit. It slowed to a stop in front of her, letting her fingers trace little ornate patterns over its domed head.

“Help?” demanded Darkleer with a scowl. He took a menacing step towards the droid and glowered. “We’re still three hours out from Tatooine and this little gremlin bursts through the internal landing doors like a hero or something.” He glared some more.

Psiioniic took a moment to look over their merry band of travelers. Seeing a queen avoid banter with a hemophobic guard over a battered R2 unit on a possible one way trip to a dessert plant ruled by a gangster on the edge of the outer rim was not how he expected this day to go at all. Still it’s not as if he expected negotiations to go well in the first place, not with the energy he was feeling.

He needed some rest. “That droid, R2-WV, was putting up blast shield as we escaped from Naboo,” Psiioniic explained to Darkleer. “We’d be dead, blown to pieces had it not helped.” Darkleer raised an eyebrow in confusion, and then lowered in it understanding.

“Oh,” he said.

The Queen laughed. It was very beautiful. The other green clad maidens giggled along. Psiioniic gave them a smile before returning to the cockpit.

He sat down with a sigh. Dolorosa walked in shortly after and occupied the seat beside Psiioniic’s. Behind them he could hear the Queen commending the hero droid none of them had known about. So captain Panaka really did take care of it.

Psiioniic leaned back in the chair and held up his pinkies. Two lines of energy sparked across, but fainter then they had been on the Federation ship. Things were looking up.

“Psiioniic, why do you never look to your other fingers?” Dolorosa asked.                

Psiioniic turned to her and thought for a moment. He held his digits up before him and pondered their secrets. “I guess…” he said, “because I’m not exactly sure what they say.” Dolorosa kept eyeing him, expectant. Psiioniic knew what she wanted, she often wanted him to, and so he did.

The thumbs revealed two steady streams of energy. Red always remained on top. Blue a constant stream on the bottom. The indexes were faint, almost to faint to be seen, yet the energy coming off them sent a shiver down his spin like it always did. He moved on to the middle fingers. Nothing, as usual. The ring fingers’ energy crackled brightly, but in a way it was comforting. Psiioniic didn’t know why it was comforting, but it didn’t bother him. And again, the pinkies were faint.

Dolorosa nodded, and turned back to the dash. Psiioniic knew there was no point in asking her what the energy meant. Everyone had said he needed to figure that out himself. Dolorosa, Redglare, Summoner… all of them agreed that he needed to figure it out on his own.

Only problem was that was hard. His whole life and all he could get was pinkies meant bad days, thumbs meant good. The rest were a mystery and using so much energy today had drained him of the want to solve any. There were still almost three hours to Tatooine. He closed his eyes, and listened to the steady hum of conversation behind him.

 

A jolt. Nothing harmful, just a little tug in the back of his mind saying, _wake up, we’re here._

Psiioniic opened his eyes. A large yellow ball of a planet loomed before them. It was featureless; nothing except the navigation system could guide them to its sandy landing ports.

He glanced at Dolorosa and began to flip the according buttons and hit the right switches to ensure a smooth landing. A glance over his shoulder revealed the Queen and her maidens, along with Darkleer, were all strapped in and ready to land.

The sandy yellow grew larger and larger before them as they pulled in for landing. Without clouds to signify an atmosphere, it was the small eruption of friction that told them they had entered the planet. A few minutes later and they were landing on a plain spot of sand, and settling into the desert landscape.

Dolorosa nodded to Psiioniic as she got up. The Queen stayed situated where she was as the Jedi moved about. The only way they could get to the hyperdrive was from inside the ship. A few removed floorboards later Psiioniic encountered a problem.

“Darkleer!” he called from within the belly of the ship. A grunt answered him. “What do you know about hyperdrives?” It was silent for a moment. Psiioniic untangled himself from the wires and tubes growing in the ship and poked his head up through the floor, turning to Darkleer. Darkleer stood still for another moment, then took of his glasses and stared Psiioniic in the eyes.

“Everything,” he said.

 

Half an hour later the three of them were hauling the blown hyperdrive generator out of the floor and into the blistering heat. They all stood around, breathing hard. Dolorosa had donned a stylish green scarf and sleek sunglasses to protect her ashen gray skin. Psiioniic and Darkleer were less concerned with appearances, and instead modified what they already wore to shield themselves form Tatooine’s unforgiving suns. At least they all had one thing in common: nocturnal instinct.

Back on the cool, air-conditioned ship, Dolorosa announced how they would proceed, should the Queen agree.

“If your majesty will allow us to proceed accordingly, and I implore you to do so, I will go into the space port that is about a kilometer away and use what I can to acquire a new hyperdrive. Darkleer has agreed to accompany me to ensure our choice is best fit, and Psiioniic will stay here to ensure your safety. Are you in agreeance?”

The Queen tilted her head in thought. The droid she had showered in so much affection beeped softly by her side. She smiled at something it had said. “I agree with your plan, save one detail,” she said.

“And what is that?” Dolorosa asked.

“I want one of my maidens to go with you. Disciple?”

The maiden to her right rose graciously. She was the one with what looked to be smaller horns, and deep, deep green eyes. Her humble face gave a grateful smile to her queen. “I’ll get changed, ma’am.”

Without grabbing any garments, she stalked off to the small private chamber near the back of the craft. Dolorosa eyed her catlike stride. The maiden was obviously well built and seemed to know how to manager herself but that didn’t change the fact that she probably wasn’t a day over eighteen galactic rotations.

“I don’t like it, having another person to look out for, a child no less,” Dolorosa said to Queen Leijon.

The Queen was a mask of indifference. “This is nonnegotiable. And I would greatly appreciate you not berating my maidens.”

“I am in charge of your safety. That includes the lives of your handmaidens.”

They stared at each other. Two queens on a chessboard but not knowing whose turn it is. Stalemate.

The maiden named Disciple walked out of room, her robes now tied in a way so that the unassuming brown underside of the fabric disguised its quality. Without close inspection, she blended in with Dolorosa’s now dull apparel and Darkleer’s ill-fitting tunic they’d found in the back.

Dolorosa dared squint her eyes at the queen, but relented a nod as she walked out of the ramp and into the desert heat. Darkleer turned to Psiioniic and gave a shrug. Disciple was the last one to leave.

“Goodbye,” she said to Psiioniic, just the hint of something unknown playing at her voice, before curtsying to her queen and exiting the craft.

Psiioniic stepped out in the heat to watch the odd trio start towards the little plot of buildings in the distance. He flinched as something akin to lighting shot down his spine. There was something in that spaceport, and whatever it was, he didn’t like it at all.


	5. Luck

Dolorosa didn’t like the spaceport. It had all the dinge and crime of a big city with none of the class to show for it. Acts of violence here made money for thugs far away from this sand covered rock and never improved the lives of its inhabitants.

She glanced at Disciple strolling along beside her. The troll didn’t seem hindered by the hot sun. Of course, neither did Dolorosa. Dolorosa never looked hindered by anything. Darkleer, on the other hand, was practically panting. It was a wonder the eyes of the entire spaceport weren’t on them with all the fuss he was causing.

“Why did I have to get stuck with two Jedi and a royal court today?” he grumbled. “It’s probably night on Naboo. I could be taking a nap before going for a walk in the moonlight.” He threw his hands up in disgust. “But no! I had to be blackmailed into going to Tatooine. I’ve never even heard of Tatooine!”

“Well you’ve heard of it now buddy,” a vendor laughed from behind a wall of rancid looking meat. Darkleer paused.

Dolorosa rolled her eyes under the protection of her glasses. “Come on, Darkleer,” she said, “We’re almost there.”

He breathed out, and continued on. Disciple giggled a bit. She was a strong looking girl and a confident looking young woman. Though she appeared meek, Dolorosa noted the strength in her stride, the confidence in the swing of her toned arms, not to mention the hint of secrecy behind her catlike smile.

She was hiding something, no doubt. Dolorosa felt no need to investigate, though.  She already knew the reasons behind those bashful smiles and down cast eyes. The absence of a tingling on the back of her neck told her it was all alright.

Through the ever present heat waves and tan on tan buildings, Dolorosa spotted a sign in some langue she knew, but couldn’t name, which read something along the lines of, “Cheap Ship Parts.” She clicked her tongue to herself, and hoped the meaning was a little more eloquent when translated in its native meanings.

They walked into the shop casually, noting the bits of scrap parts strewn about the small dealer. Like all the buildings the walls looked like a clay and sand mixture, as if the desert outside had manifested the community out of sheer will.

Dolorosa watched as a grotesque, shell encased creature limped up to them. It looked like it belonged on a planet with giant lizards and towering ferns, all grimy calcium plates and half a boney mandible sticking out of its clicking jaw. Only one beady black eye was visible as it seemed the rest of its exoskeleton had grown around any recognizable features.

“How may I help you folks,” it asked with a weak voice and an even weaker attempt at a bow.

Dolorosa spoke back to the creature kindly, as she always did to people who hadn’t given her reason not to. “Hello, we’re looking for a hyperdrive. I believe my associate here could be of more assistance than I, though.”

She removed her sunglasses and nodded to Darkleer, who stepped up and immediately began talking parts with the dealer. As they chatted, the conversation became more and more technical and she was soon over her head. After a bit, the creature gestured to a door towards the back of the shop. Dolorosa began to follow the pair to the junkyard when she heard a new voice.

“No, I don’t believe in luck,” it was saying. She stilled. It was coming from an alcove to her right.

“Well, why not? There are plenty of reasons to hope,” someone else said. Disciple.                        

“I didn’t say I didn’t believe in hope,” the voice continued. It was young, a boy’s. “I said I didn’t believe in luck, in things happening without reason. Hope, on the other hand, can change the galaxy.”

Disciple laughed. “The whole galaxy? My, my Vantas, that’s a little ambitious of you, don’t you think?”

“I know. But I can still hope.”

Dolorosa took a step towards the space they were speaking in.

“Dolorosa!” Darkleer barked from outside. The voices had paused. She turned, and walked outside.

Darkleer stood triumphantly in front of a bulky, scorched box of metal. The creature gave a shaky nod to the object. “And what,” it croaked, “do you have as pay, my dear?”

“50,000 Republic credits,” she answered.

The creature didn’t give any change in posture as it replied, “Credits do not work out here, lovely.”

She waved a hand in front of it, summoning a tugging feeling inside her. “No, they will do just fine.”

The creature, still shock still, “But alas, they’re worth nothing.”

She bristled momentarily. Inwardly, of course. On the outside she was still a grand illusion of calm. “Then it seems we are at an impasse.”

“It seems we are.” The creature hobbled back into the shop.

Darkleer raised his eyebrows at her. “What was that? Just like that, it’s not gonna happen? This is the perfect model for our ship, do you realize how damn lucky we were to even find it?”

“We found it for a reason we do not know yet. If we are meant to obtain it, we will.” As she turned, she heard Darkleer muttering something undoubtedly profane under his breath. Dolorosa didn’t mind. She didn’t believe in luck either. She believed in the Force.

Back in the shade of the shop, Disciple’s new friend was in full view as he explained some clanking old robots to her.

“Disciple?”

She turned around with a “Hmm?” The young boy standing next to her gave a startled little jump when he saw the creature. Dolorosa stiffened, visibly. The boy, barely half her height and covered from nubby horn to grimy toe in sand and rags, radiated. What exactly? She didn’t know.

His shy eyes cast themselves down. “I finished cleaning the radiator.”

The creature spoke harshly. “Go do the next one.”

Before the boy exited, he gave Disciple a little smile. “Thank you for talking to me,” he said.

“Thank you,” she replied. The boy scampered off.

Dolorosa nodded to Disciple, and they to, exited the shop.

 

Darkleer glowered. Despite finding a shady spot in from the sun and a moment to rest, he glowered. “Why did you pass that up?”

Dolorosa looked at him, “I could not pay for it.”

“And that stopped you!”

“Well I wasn’t going to steal it, if that’s what you’re implying.”

He made a few unintelligible sounds and clenched sand in his fist.

“We will find a way,” Dolorosa said quietly. She turned to Disciple. “What do you think?”

Disciple had turned away from them, facing the street. “I think a storm is coming.” Wind began to whip at the few vendors still operating. Windows closed, people trickled into alleys and open doors, and sand bit at their ankles.

Dolorosa cursed inside. “We need to get back to the ship.”

The three rose and started towards the main road. Their clothes yanked themselves into frenzy in the wind. Soon, Dolorosa knew, visibility would start to decrease. Only shelter could help them now, but where-

“Hey! What are you guys doing out here?”

“Vantas?” Disciple called.

The boy ran out from a door and met them in the street. “You guys need to get out of this wind! A sandstorm is blowing in!” His eyes were shy no more. Now they frantically darted around them. “Come on! You guys can stay with me!” His eyes lingered for a moment on Dolorosa’s hip.

She knelt down before him, covering the lightsaber at her side. “Thank you,” she said at eye level.

The boy smiled and held out a hand. Dolorosa took it, and he lead the party down a maze of sandy streets out of the storm.


	6. Vantas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, sorry about the formatting issues! I just took care of that so this is easier to read, and thank you so much for reading!

Wind howled outside the shoddy little slave housing. Dolorosa had sand embedded in every inch of her clothing. It would take ages to get out, but she didn’t mind. The young boy, Vantas stood shyly in front of them. He wasn’t so little now that she got a good look at him. But it was always hard to tell with young trolls. She figured his round features and big eyes hid his years well.

He looked up and smiled. “Well, this is my hive! I know it’s not much, but it’ll keep you safe from the storm till it passes.”

Dolorosa knelt down to speak to him. “You are very kind, Vantas.”

“Thank you!” he beamed. Up close, she could get a good look at his big, yellow irises and the bright crimson specks of red imbedded in them. She smiled back.

“Would you guys like something?” he asked. “I don’t have much, but I think I can scrounge something up.” He left them to sit at a wobbly little table. The whole hive was neat, yet obviously a slave quarter.

“Who owns him?” Dolorosa turned to Disciple. The maiden frowned. “You were speaking to him earlier, who is he?”

Disciple frowned harder, looked from a silent Darkleer back to Dolorosa. Finally, she sighed. “That dingy creature in the junk shop bought him. Organic smuggling. I didn’t even know it still happened in the galaxy.”

A roar from the small side room caused Darkleer to jump. Vantas was yelling something to someone.

“Does he have a lusus?” Dolorosa asked.

A hulking, shelled crustacean heaved itself into the small central room of the hive and screeched. Vantas ran in after it, yelling, “No really! Friends! They’re okay! They’re not trying to hurt us!” The lusus wasn’t convinced. It assumed a crouch in the corner of the room, snapping its claws menacingly at them periodically. Vantas waved a hand at them to excuse his custodian, and then returned to the side room.

“Apparently so,” Darkleer grumbled.

Vantas walked back in the room slowly caring a tray of brown bread and glasses. “I hope this will do, guys,” he said, a red flush tinting his cheeks.

“It’s perfect,” Disciple smiled at him. Vantas smiled back, and took the last remaining chair at the table. He sat opposite of Darkleer. The stark contrast of the two was amusing. Between Vantas’ smile, and Darkleer’s glare there wasn’t an iota of common ground, it seemed.

“What’s with the droid?” Darkleer asked, ripping into some bread.

A smirk crept into Vantas’s round face. He leaned around Darkleer to look at something in the only other room. Dolorosa had noticed it to: barely a shell of a robot. All rusting black carapace and bright, squinting white eyes.

“That,” Vantas said, “Is my AR bot. I’m rewiring it so it can fight.”

Darkleer scoffed. “You’re turning a protocol droid into a fighter?”

Vantas hopped up and walked over to the droid. “You bet!”

Darkleer shook his head as he followed the boy. Disciple and Dolorosa shared a curious look, before returning their attention to the boys. Vantas practically skipped to the skeletal bot and flipped a switch behind its head. Nothing happened. Darkleer laughed.

Then Darkleer gasped, because the bot had punched him in the gut.

“Yes!” Vantas exclaimed with a fist to the air. Darkleer actually laughed as he straightened up. The droid was swinging its arm about, not hitting anything, repeating, “Justice. Justice. Justice,” over and over. Darkleer was heaving from raspy laughter, Vantas was practically crying. Disciple’s giggled joined in the chorus and Dolorosa couldn’t help but smile at the shenanigans too.

Eventually, Vantas got a hand behind the still seated droid’s head, and switched it off.

“I’m still working on him,” he laughed as they sat back down at the tabled.

“Well kid,” Darkleer said, “you’ve done well so far. After this dinner, I might show you a few things about wiring.” Vantas gaped, then smiled. The lusus clicked in the corner.

Dolorosa smiled at the boy to. To think, after all the searching, they’d find him here, a slave on Tatooine. The troll with red blood. They Jedi who would bring peace to the galaxy. He was so full of joy.

He was so talkative. Disciple looked at him fondly as he spoke of daily life as a slave. Vantas tried to make it sound like it wasn’t all that bad, but they all knew better. When he mumbled about the tracking device somewhere in his body that would release a poison if he tried to run away, they were all silent for a moment.

“Van,” Disciple said softly, “how did you become a slave?”

Vantas shrugged. “I really don’t know. I’ve heard about trolls all across the galaxy, about the different mothergrubs scattered across different systems. I don’t know which brooding caverns I came from, but this guy-“he jabbed a finger at the now sleepy looking lusus, “-wouldn’t get off my case. And since he was the only lusii to bond with me, I guess we were stuck with each other.

“I don’t recall much about the brooding caverns, or my homeworld. But I do remember a ship taking me away. It was really dark. I could hear Crabby, but I couldn’t see him. And then, it was really bright. Really really bright. I’d probably be blind if old Crabby hadn’t told me to shut my eyes until it was night here. And yeah… a few days later Pinch bought me and… yeah…” he trailed off.

It was getting late, and it was obvious they were all exhausted. The four of them sat silently, thinking. Dolorosa looked back at the boy. She could feel the aura around him. Like how solar winds wrapped themselves around planets, the Force cradled the boy in an invisible shield. She wondered if he felt it, all that powered swirling around him, like she did. She wondered if he’d really bring balance to the Force, like the prophecy had said. Redglare had warned her that prophecies were easy to misinterpret, but this felt real.

_Snap!_ Dolorosa didn’t flinch, but internally smiled when the others did. The lusus clicked something and Vantas rolled his eyes. “I don’t even have to wake up early tomorrow! It’s my day off!” The crab clicked again, sharper. Vantas lowered his head. “Fine.” He turned to the rest of them, and smiled sadly, “You guys can stay up if you want, but I have to go to bed. I’ll get you some blankets.”

He got up and walked to the other room in the hive and picked up some fabric in a corner. “Oh! Tomorrow I can show you guys my podracer!”

The lusus clicked loudly, hunched forward. Vantas moved the table back and began spreading the blankets out on the floor. “Crabby doesn’t like when I race, but I do!”

Darkleer huffed. “I’ve seen podracing on some channels. It’s extremely dangerous. You race?” He laughed.

“Yup,” Vantas said, not hearing the doubt. “I’m the only troll alive who can.”

“You must be fearless.”

Vantas turned to Dolorosa. While Darkleer and Disciple grumbled over which blankets they wanted, Vantas gazed up at her. “As fearless as a Jedi,” Dolorosa noted.

Vantas glanced at her hip then met her eyes. “Are you a Jedi?” he whispered.

Dolorosa leaned forward in her chair, and whispered back, “Do you think I am?”

Vantas scrunched his forehead, thinking. He slowly breathed, “Yes.” The boy frowned. “I thought Jedi never got in trouble?” he said aloud.

Dolorosa smiled. “No one can avoid trouble, Vantas, no matter how hard they try.” Disciple looked up at them and smiled to herself. “Do you want to know why we’re here?” Dolorosa asked.

Vantas nodded seriously, still with a scrunched forehead.

“We are in trouble. I, along with a fellow Jedi Knight, was on a mission that went terribly wrong. Our party was on our way to Coruscant when our ship got damaged, and now we are stuck, with no way to acquire a new hyperdrive.”

Vantas frowned and nodded like he understood. When he met Dolorosa’s eyes again, hope shown through his face. “We’ll find a way…” he faltered, tilting his head. “Wow. I don’t even know your name!”

Dolorosa smiled, and introduced herself. Darkleer gave a shout out to himself from under a cover, and Disciple smiled. Vantas beamed at them all before saying goodnight, and returning to the other little room. Dolorosa saw him lie down on a few sheets like their own, and close his eyes.

She surveyed the two little rooms. The Crab was drowsing, still in the same corner. Darkleer was already beginning to snore, spread out over half the blankets provided. Disciple was sleepily pawing at her sheets, and Vantas had already begun to breathe evenly in the other room. She nodded to herself once she knew they were all well and clicked off the light.


	7. Gambling Children

In her long and adventures life Dolorosa had woken up to her fair share of loud noises. Battles waging, comrades and enemies dying, ships exploding, but a boy exclaiming “I found a way!” was most certainly a first.

She had chosen to lay down by the wall opposite of the Crab. Darkleer and Disciple had somehow managed to end up in a snoring tangle of limbs throughout the night and Dolorosa was glad she hadn’t been a part of it. Both Darkleer and Disciple smashed their heads together in surprise when Vantas barreled out of the kitchen, bedroom, pantry that was the other room, yelling, “I know how we can get the hyperdrive! I know how we can get the hyperdrive!”

Darkleer and Disciple groaned. The Crab was clicking and letting out groggy, guttural noises from its throat. Vantas still threw his arms in the air, grinning, and Dolorosa was letting out a small, relieved breath.

Last night Psiioniic had sent a transmission. Someone had tried contacting Queen Leijon. All of Naboo seemed to have fallen into chaos overnight. If Vantas’s idea didn’t work she may have to take up Darkleer’s criminal propositions.

Vantas skipped up to Dolorosa and grabbed her hand. “I know how to get your hyperdrive!”

“Yes, I gathered that,” she smiled. “And how do you plan on achieving that?”

“I’m gonna win it in a podrace!”

The Crab actually let out a screech. Vantas stood his ground as it stomped up to lusus.

“I’m serious! Pinch will bet anything if the odds are in his favor!”

Another screech.

“Hey! Don’t talk like that!” Vantas looked hurt. “You know I can do it this time, you know I can win!”

The Crab snapped dismissively.

Vantas scoffed and turned to Dolorosa, his wide eyes full of sincerity. “Please. I swear to you, I’ve built the fastest speeder on Tatooine. If you enter me, saying it’s your pod, I can win the hyperdrive! I can help you!”

The Crab pinched aggressively from behind him but Vantas ignored it, pleading with Dolorosa. Dolorosa turned to the Crab.

“If you can find it in you to let Vantas race for us, we’d find a way to pay you back. I swear on the behalf of the Republic we will not abandon you.” Dolorosa looked up at the lusus.

It snapped quickly. Vantas translated his voice tight, “He says he doesn’t care. He says… if it could hurt me… it’s not even worth it…”

Vantas faced the ground. Dolorosa faced the Crab. Disciple spoke up behind it all.

“If we win, we free Vantas.”

The room was suddenly focused on her. The Crab snapped.

“He’s asking how.”

Disciple looked to Dolorosa. Dolorosa observed her messy raven hair, her dirty face, and her sharp attitude. It was rude. It was demanding. It was what they needed right now.

“I’ll deal with that,” she said to the Crab. “If Vantas races, not only will he be racing for our mission, he will also be racing for his freedom. I will arrange it.”

The Crab hunkered down a bit lower, snapping its claws thoughtfully. It burbled something to Vantas, who looked at the ground. It burbled again, and Vantas shook his head. One more snap and Vantas was sniffling.

Disciple’s face was contorting in torment as the boy’s shoulders shuddered in dismay. “I know…” he was muttering. “I would miss you.” The Crab stood upright and snapped twice in succession. Vantas nodded smartly, and faced them all. His eyes were rimmed with more red than usual.

“He says while you may be able to free me, he’s less likely.” Vantas let that sink in, more to himself. “But… he wants me to get off Tatooine. He says I can race, and you can free me… only if you take me with you.”

Dolorosa approached the Crab. It stood proud. She reached out a hand, even though she knew it wouldn’t try to take it. “We will protect him.” The Crab gave a sort of nod. It screeched at Vantas, who smiled a bit.

Wiping his nose, he told them, “He says I need to get my ass in gear and show you my podracer.”

 

After finding a shady spot behind some bar, Dolorosa took out her communicator. Darkleer and Disciple had stayed back at the hive to help Vantas prepare his racer. Both of them had taken a liking to the boy, and it was painfully obvious how much they were all invested in his racing now. She had been sent to gamble with Pinch, owner of the two things they needed most at the moment.

But before all that she needed to check in with her padawan. The little silver communicator flashed blue in her hand, then green. She held it to her ear.

“What are you guys doing there?” was Psiioniic’s greeting. “It’s been a day. Where’s the hyperdrive? Last night you said you were ‘handling it’. Is it handled? Are we flying to Coruscant? Is Naboo safe? Is the Queen happy? The answers to those questions, if you hadn’t noticed, is no!”

She let the line fall silent. As the seconds ticked on, Psiioniic’s regret bled through the speaker.

“…Dolorosa…?”

Silence.                                                                                                                                    

A sigh. “All right, that was… that was out of line.”

She traced circles on the table in front of her.

“I know when you say you’re gonna handle it, you handle it. Time and time again, you’ve proved that.”

Her nails still gleamed, despite the dry heat. That was nice.

“Please, say something. I’m sorry. I know. Patience. I’ll find it.”

She took a deep breath and opened her mouth.

“Dolorosa, I’m sorry!”

She wanted to smile, but didn’t. “What happened?” she asked.

His voice was strained. “I don’t know what’s going on. We got a transmission from Naboo, a governor begging for help. We didn’t respond. But I’ve been sparking, Dolorosa. I can’t help it. There’s something in that spaceport you got to look out for. I can feel it from here. I think you’re in danger.”

Dolorosa scanned her area. There was nothing she couldn’t defend herself from. Yet, Psiioniic was always right about these things. If he felt something it was only a matter of time.

“Psiioniic, meditate. Calm your mind. I know this will be hard for you, but you need to master your energy. I will be back as soon as I can.”

“Can I at least know what you’re planning?”

“You’d have a heart attack if I told you, so no. But it does involve a giant crab.”

Now the line was silent on her end. “The worst part is,” Psiioniic deadpanned, “I know you’re not lying. Call me when you have the hyperdrive. And Master, may the Force be with you.”

“May the Force be with you.”

She pulled the communicator away from her ear and fixed her clothes. Her mind wandered as she strode to the scrap shop. What is the best way to gamble children?

A creak met her ears as she stepped into the shop. Sand had wormed its way to the interior over the course of the storm. She guessed Vantas would be cleaning all that up later. If they lost, that is.

The crusty alien limped in from the yard out back, and gave a pathetic little bow. “You’re back,” it rasped. “Have you found applicable payment for your needed part, dear?”

Dolorosa pursed her lips, “In a way…”

Pinch straightened itself and made its way slowly to a counter near the door. “Is that so?”

“It is.”

It heaved itself to a seat she couldn’t see and rested its bony forearms on the countertop. “I’m interested. What do you propose?” She was sure if had eyebrows to raise, it would have.

“Simple. I sponsor your boy Vantas in the podrace this afternoon. You pay entrance fee, I provide the racer. We split the winnings. With that I should have more than enough to pay for my hyperdrive,” Dolorosa explained.

“Sounds a little weighed on my side,” Pinch started, “which I do appreciate. But what do I get if we lose? You have nothing to bargain with.”

Dolorosa smiled. “Well, I do have a pristine cruiser ship, hot off Naboo, but that’s a little much to gamble for, don’t you think?”

Pinch leaned over the counter. “Define ‘pristine’.”

She shrugged and pulled a hologram display from her robes. The sleek ship lit up between them. “Worthy of the royal court, I’d say. But I’m really not too good with ships.”

Pinch’s mandible clicked on his face thoughtfully. “I pay for the boy. You somehow provide a racer. The boy wins; I basically get all the winnings. The boy loses; I get a ship worth triple the entry fee? Sounds too good to be true.”

The Jedi pretended to ponder a moment as she looked up at the ceiling. “Are you saying I should sweeten my side of the deal?”

“Hey now darling. I’m a generous thing, but I didn’t say that.”

Dolorosa placed a nimble finger on her chin. “If Vantas wins I’ll let you keep all the winnings if you give me the hyperdrive, the boy, and his custodian.”

Pinch let out a rasp. “Well rob me, why don’t you! No, maybe the hyperdrive and the crab, but that boy is valuable.”

“I’ll do it for the hyperdrive and the boy. You keep all the winnings. If I lose, you still get the ship.”

Dolorosa kept an even face as the dealer did some math in its head. Her breathing was calm. A tingling, warm sensation had been rising in her chest. It was a small gesture of reassurance from something inside her that this was, in fact, going to work.

“You’ve got yourself a deal,” Pinch said.

“I look forward to seeing you after the races,” Dolorosa replied.

Its laughter could be heard as she walked away, but she didn’t care. They had Vantas on their side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big thank you to everyone reading this! I just finished writing the first draft of the second installment of this series. It turned out a little longer than I expected. Because I now have this done, I'll start posting this a little more frequently, Thursdays and Sundays, then probably take a little break to get a head start on number three. Thanks for reading!


	8. Darkleer’s Life’s Work

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Going camping, posting early.

Insatiable excitement had infected Vantas’s quarters. When Dolorosa arrived, Disciple was making snacks for everyone in the cramped kitchen with what they had. Young boys and girls off all sorts of species were watching and babbling around a rickety racer in the street. Darkleer’s horns could be seen from one side of the ships underbelly as Vantas handed him parts. The Crab watched it all from the doorway.

Dolorosa approached the lusus.

“It’s done. As you predicted, Pinch would only let one of you go. If he wins, he is free.”

The Crab nodded, and turned his attention back to the kids. “Do you know that he’s special?”

Without turning, the Crab nodded slowly.             

“Do you know what that means, especially to me?”

He gave a sharp double snap. He knew.

“Thank you.”

The Crab stayed still.

Dolorosa walked over to the boys. “How does it look?” she asked.

“Awesome!” Vantas grinned.

“Horrible,” Darkleer grumbled.

Vantas frowned, “Not horrible! All we’re missing is some spark links. They’re not that hard to find…”

“Cheap ones aren’t,” Darkleer snapped as he sat up. “That’s the problem. Van keeps burning through them like matches. Sure, this racer is meant for the big leagues…”

Vantas smiled at his creation.

“But,” Darkleer continued, wiping sweat from his forehead, “some of the parts are nothing less than junk.”

Dolorosa thought for a moment. “How does your bow get its power?”

Darkleer sneered, “You wouldn’t understand. It’s a hydraulic power unit I designed myself. The main block is rooted to the shaft by copper plated wires that connect to ports in the wrist guard and…” he frowned. “No. Hell no.”

Dolorosa smiled. “We have about four hours until the race…”

“Dolorosa, that bow is my life’s work.”

“What is she talking about, Darkleer?” Vantas asked, tilting his head.

Darkleer held his head in his hands in anguish. His eyebrows stayed in a fixed position of disbelief as he leaned forward to retrieve the compact bow from the back of his trousers. “I can’t believe I’m doing this…”

“Doing what?” Vantas demanded.

“Damn Jedi is making me do this…” He held the rectangle of gleaming steel parts in his left hand, the hand that always wore a thin black wrist guard made of laser proof material thinner than a sheet of paper. A quick flick of his wrist and the block unfolded like a snake striking. It grew into a full sized bow.

“Whoa!” Vantas leaned forward to look at the four foot bow in front of them. “You built that!”

“Yeah…” Darkleer pulled a dainty screwdriver from the tool box beside him and rested it on the bottom of the bow.

“Lady,” he said turning to Dolorosa, “When we get off this planet, and I fix my bow, my first arrow is going through your leg.”

She shrugged a nod.

Darkleer heaved a sigh. “Can’t believe it…” He prized open the bottom of the bow with metallic _scree._ His large fingers delicately coaxed a thick wire out of the inside of the bow. The shaft wilted into his lap.

“Whoa! A converter link!” Vantas gasped. “That’ll work on anything!”

“Yeah…” Darkleer sighed. “I know. I built this one by hand.” He handed it to Vantas with no particular fanfare and stayed sitting, looking at his now limp bow. Vantas grumbled underneath the racer until something clicked.

“Darkleer, get out of the exhaust ports!” Vantas called as he climbed in the seat.

“Wha- oh!” Darkleer scrambled up and out of the way of a pipe near his head. Vantas flipped switches excitedly and punched a button. The twin engine roared to life, bringing the whole vehicle to a hover two feet above the air.

“Whoo hoo!” Vantas cried.

Darkleer gave a tight lipped smile. “You better win this race kid.”

The kids around them snickered. Vantas shook his head, “Shut up guys! I’ll do it this time!”

Darkleer brought a palm to his face and let it rest there for a moment before turning to Dolorosa. “Get this,” he said in mock cheer, “Van here has never won a race in his life.”

Dolorosa’s stomach lurched. “I’m sure he’ll do fine.”

Vantas cut the engine and let the pod’s power lower until it was back on the ground.

He bounced in the seat and faced her.  “I won’t let you down, Dolorosa! I can do this! I know I can.” He said those last words with such finality she knew he would be able. Still, as Disciple walked out carrying a tray of water and sandwiches, a nervous cloud hindered her thoughts. Psiioniic was rarely wrong.

The Crab snapped, breaking her train of thought. Vantas looked up from his racer. “Yeah, you’re probably right…” He hopped out of the seat and up to Dolorosa. “He says I should rest a bit before the race.”

“I agree,” Dolorosa said. She knelt down to his level. “You’re a very special boy, Vantas. You have incredible talent.”

A blush rose on his gray skin. “Thank you. I won’t let you down. I promise.”

“I know,” Dolorosa said. Vantas hopped inside.

 

After Darkleer had done one final inspection of the podracer, he sat down at the table with Dolorosa and Disciple. “You seem confident in him, at least,” he said.

Dolorosa flashed a smile. “I believe he’s destined for great things.”

“He makes me sad,” Disciple said.

Darkleer raised an eyebrow. Dolorosa asked, “And why’s that? Do you think he’s not up for the task?”

“No, it’s not that…” Disciple said slowly. “I just… I feel… goodness he’s been a slave all his life. What must that have been like?”

The three sat in silence. They didn’t know. Disciple worked with royalty. Darkleer had been a well off guard. Dolorosa had grown up in the Jedi temple. They had no idea.

“We’re helping him now,” Darkleer said. He glanced into the other room, where they could just see the top on Vantas’s head and those nubby little horns as he lay napping. “That’s what matters.”

Dolorosa gave a sharp nod.

Disciple stared at her hands.


	9. The Race

Vantas awoke to a soft _click_ by his ear. The Crab towered over him, his head tilted at a concerned angle. Vantas rubbed his eyes and mumbled a thank you as he pushed the single, scratchy blanket off. He sat for a moment on the floor.

The Crab snipped. _Race. One hour. I know you’ll do well._

Vantas smiled a bit. A tight, warm feeling had been solidifying in the pit of his stomach all day. It wasn’t so much a sick feeling, more of a hug, he’d say. It was reassuring but apprehension still snuck into his mind.

He stood up. It wasn’t like he could help it. Today was the biggest day of his life.

Disciple saw him first when he walked into the other room. Her face lit up at the sight of him. Vantas smiled back. Not many people genuinely smiled around here. It was an interesting change of pace.

“You feeling ready, Van?” Disciple asked.

“Absolutely.”

Dolorosa and Darkleer smiled down at him too. They all fussed about him in their own way. Dolorosa assuring him that he was going to do fine. He knew he would. Disciple offering him a snack. He said he wasn’t hungry, but ate it anyway. Darkleer was mostly silent aside from a few nods.

A nice looking tow-pod had picked up the podracer out front. Moments later Vantas was smooshed between Disciple and Darkleer in the back of a cab. Then they were at the track.

Vantas drifted through it all. The cabby let them off where the garages were, behind the north section of seats. He knew behind the south there were private boxes for the thugs and criminals who arranged the pod races. That’s where Dolorosa, Darkleer, and Disciple would be sitting because he was entered. The Crab never came to races. He said he was too bulky but Vantas has seen him scuttle through narrow alleyways before. He knew the real reason. The Crab was afraid of watching him race.

Darkleer was doing a final inspection of the racer. Around them two dozen other racers were finishing engine checks and fine tuning their devices. He took a moment to breathe in the fuel tainted air and listen to the revving machinery. Podracing was built on crime and gambling. The whole system was corrupt and dangerous. But damn if he didn’t love the feel of the racer beneath him.

“Hey, Vantas!” Darkleer snapped.

“Huh?”

“Where’s your head, kid?” Darkleer was holding something out in front of him. Vantas blinked, and then took the googles. If the sand wasn’t bad enough there was always the glare of the twin suns on his sensitive eyes to blind him.

“I said,” Darkleer continued, “that lady over there is giving you crap.” He jabbed his thumb at an alarmingly orange specimen four racers away. She gave Vantas a glare with her solid pink eyes before turning away to speak to her personal mechanic.

“Oh, that’s just Skallaj,” Vantas explained. “Doesn’t matter that they say she’s the best racer in the system, she’s a bully and I’m gonna beat her by the book.”

“Hey,” Darkleer said. Vantas frowned at his tone. “Kid, you do what you need to do. The rest of your life, and possibly our lives to, are in your hands today. Fight for it.”

He clamped a hand on Vantas’s shoulder and nodded like a solider. He didn’t look away until Vantas nodded back.

A kind of siren wailed about the garage. People began to scramble. The roar of the crowd outside shook the sandstone.

“Go get ‘em, Van.” Darkleer flashed a crooked smile, and turned away into the swirling crowd of race staff.

A voice. Someone pulled the manual rig in the front of the racer. Sunlight. Bright, bright sunlight, even through the goggles it hurt. An announcer was speaking. Vantas thought he heard his name. On his left was a giant Fian. The alien snorted and faced the track. To his right was a little green one he didn’t recognize. It was shaking in its seat. If it was nervous or excited, Vantas couldn’t tell. Three more over the green one was Skallaj, calmly smoothing back the black leaf like plates on her head.

Vantas raised his head at the enormous crowds around him. They cheered. He couldn’t see anyone he recognized. There were too many people. They looked like sand in the wind.

_Go!_

Vantas’s eyes cut through the crowd and felt Disciple more than saw her. Clear as day the voice said again, _Go!_

 _Bang!_ The racer left of him exploded in a red inferno. Every engine gunned at once and the racers were off, leaving a cloud of dust in their wake. Vantas punched the ignition button. Nothing happened. The announcers jeered. A fire crew was jogging in his peripheral vision.

The fuel links! Vantas slammed a lever, hit the ignition again, and left all inhibition behind as the racer sped off into the desert heat.

A thousand different shades of orange and yellow and beige blurred around the foreground of Vantas’s vision. The wind rushing in his ears was deafening. His knuckles were ashen on the racer yoke. Desert flew by.

Up ahead, huge caverns and canyons of sandstone grew. Half a dozen specks of black zoomed towards them. Vantas hit the green accelerator near his thumb, and jolted as the G force on his body increased. Specks grew into full sized racers. Vantas weaved through the first few with ease. Up ahead was a dog fight. Four racers crashed together and fought for a lead before the canyons hit. The racer nearest the back, a piece of junk that was holding together surprisingly well, veered to the left.

Vantas glanced from the canyon to the racer and slowed his velocity by the tiniest fraction. The pilot in his line of sight pulled a metal ball from his cockpit. In a flash, Vantas gunned the accelerator again. He pulled the yoke back and shot up as the bomb exploded beneath him. Over the wind he heard metal grinding.

He flicked off the accelerator and shot into the canyon like a bullet. Vantas couldn’t think. If he thought, he’d crash. Instead he focused. Twitch the thumb to the right. The racer avoided a column of stone. Veer slightly lower. He zoomed into a dark tunnel. Two degrees right. Once again out in sunlight.

A wide valley opened up before him. Stick to the walls. Little starburst of sand sprayed up around the sides of the racer. Sand people with guns. It didn’t matter. He kept his eyes forward.

The wide valley opened up into a wider expanse of rolling dunes. Other racers were fighting up ahead. Going around would forfeit too much time. Vantas kept a steady speed. Soon enough he was in the midst of the racing. A pod next to him was hooked to a scary, expensive looking red racer. Red pulled in the racer until the smaller one was in between the bigger one’s twin engines. Vantas didn’t have time to watch the rest.

Rolling dunes demanded attention. If he didn’t guide the pod perfectly sand would blow into the engine and clog the ventilation lines. He fell into a steady up, down, up, down. Avoiding the other racers was difficult but manageable.

On the horizon a small structure was growing. Towers. Rows of seats. In one blink the stadium was surrounding him. A roar crashed over Vantas. Another blink and the grandeur were gone.

As soon as he hit the desert again, a _plink!_ sounded off the back of the cockpit. Gunfire? Another _plink!_ This one hit the windshield in front of Vantas’s face. It left a crack. The canyon was good cover but was too far away. _Plink!_

In a flurry of left hand steer, right hand switch, right hand steer, left hand switch, Vantas pulled the brake for a moment and blasted the vents. He heard his adversary cry out as scalding air and sand blasted the front of their racer. Before the pod could flood, Vantas hit the accelerator and barreled away. Metal screeched behind him.

Into the canyon. He scraped off a wall, and narrowly missed a dead end. He breathed. Twitch to the right. Into the valley. Stick to the wall. Avoid the sand people. Fly two meters to the right. Breathe. Into the sand dunes.

A clear view of the sand sea met him. His gripped tightened. No one. If he was last… well, no need to think about that but if he was first that meant he had no idea what was behind him. His fingers itched for the accelerator. Up, down, up, down. It was a miracle the spark links hadn’t burnt out already. Sure, they were built by Darkleer, but he didn’t want to push it.

The stadium rose up ahead. A jolt shot down his spine. On the other side of the roar was his last lap. He had to push it. Without a second thought, he jammed the accelerator and flew over the flat desert. An unfamiliar frequency met his ears, and he realized he was screaming. Speed and velocity tried their hardest to tear the vehicle apart but by some miracle it held.

He flipped a switch. The acceleration slacked. As the darkness of the canyon enveloped him, he smelled smoke. Left. Right. Right. Up. Up and left. Out of the canyon. A racer sped on in front of him. Vantas twitched by the accelerator, but there was no need. A bullet ripped through the other racer’s arm. The pod banked and flipped. The pod bounced over him as he sped on through.

Out of the valley. A single pod graced the dunes. Vantas gunned the accelerator. The smell of smoke burned his nostrils. It was his racer that was smoking. The left engine fumed.

Up ahead, the tint of orange was unmistakable. Skallaj. As the gap between them closed, Skallaj’s head whipped around. She flipped switches. Vantas did too. They both accelerated. There was no more extra speed up either of their sleeves.

Her pod drifted into Vantas’s space. He knew if she cut him off they’d both be screwed. Blocking was her only option.

Bigger and bigger the stadium on the horizon grew. Vantas gripped the yoke. Up and down. Up and down over the dune. His life waited in that stadium. Seconds were about to decide his fate.

_Do what you need to do._

Up and down. Up and down. Vantas’s racer scraped the edge of her right exhaust port. He could hear the cheering ahead. Up, a little higher. The pod hovered above the back of her port. And down!

Vantas gipped the yoke so tight his shoulders popped. The front of his racer nicked the back of her exhaust port, knocking it off and destroying the balance in her racer. Skallaj screamed as her pod went fishtailing. Vantas leaned forward. The crowds grew louder. He rocketed into the noise.

“I can’t believe it!” a voice boomed. “Vantas has won the race!”

 


	10. The Desert Night

“Vantas has won the race!”

The crowd lost its collective mind. All around Dolorosa people of all species were jumping out of their seats screaming, some in happiness, some in anger, and some in pure disbelief of what had just conspired before their eyes. Darkleer and Disciple embraced. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Darkleer rest a hand on Disciples shoulder for a moment, then let it fall. A pap, perhaps?

Over the bobbing heads of the crowd, Dolorosa could see little Vantas stumble out of his smoking racer. His face was lit up on a screen above the announcer’s box. Vantas looked like he was about to faint, but still managed a smug little smile. Even through the newly acquired scrapes and scratches adorning his face he still managed to radiate happiness.

“Let’s go!” Disciple squealed.

She dragged Darkleer and Dolorosa through the crowds. With her abrupt shoves and boney elbows they made it down to the track relatively quick. Two scantily clad women were fawning over a blushing Vantas as they reached the garage.

Other racers made their way into the space. Some walked right up to Vantas and shook his hand, but most just scowled. Vantas didn’t care. That huge grin never left his dust covered face.

“Vantas!” Disciple cried. She rushed up to the boy and lifted him in a hug. “You did amazing!”

She set him down gently. He smiled up at her.

“Uh, good job Vantas,” Darkleer mumbled, averting his eyes. Dolorosa didn’t let her frown show as Darkleer hung a few feet back from Vantas.

“Thank you!” Vantas said, rushing up to Darkleer, who visibly flinched. “I wouldn’t have held on if not for your spark links! They worked great!”

Darkleer took a step back and offered an uneasy smile.

Disciple shot him a confused face behind Vantas, and then turned her attention back to the boy.

“That was some racing, Van,” she started as she began to steer him away from the crowds. Darkleer and Dolorosa held back.

After Disciple and Vantas had walked out of earshot, Dolorosa turned to Darkleer, stone faced. “Did you really not know until this moment?”

If looks could kill, Dolorosa wouldn’t have had a chance. The hate contorting Darkleer’s face was evident even under his black glasses. “Well, Jedi, the kid wasn’t cut up and bleeding candy colored poison when we met him was he?”

Their staring match continued. “That boy saved all our lives just now.”

Darkleer stood silent, his fists clenched.

“If you don’t harbor the capacity for respect I do hope you can find it in you to at least keep your mouth shut.” She turned on her heel and started after the shape of Disciples horns over the crowd.

 

There was a crash from inside the servants’ quarters. Disciple frowned to Dolorosa, but Dolorosa just shook her head.

“Let it happen, Disciple. A young troll must fight their lusus in order to leave the planet. This is perfectly normal, especially for his age,” Dolorosa explained.

The three of them sat in the cooling sand across the street. She’d already arranged to meet with Pinch after the race. Already, the suns were well below the horizon but an event like this couldn’t be rushed. Disciple gasped as she heard a thump, and then Vantas’s groan.

“He’s going to kill him!” she persisted.

“No. He’s not. Sorry Disciple, but some of us actually grew up with lusii, like we’re meant to,” Darkleer grumbled.

Disciple turned to Dolorosa on her left, then back to Darkleer on her right. “Are you implying there’s something wrong with being raised by parents?” she asked.

Darkleer scoffed. “Hell yeah I am. Trolls were meant to be raised by lusii. It’s the only way we can learn. It’s been that way for thousands of years.” He scoffed again. “Of course you wouldn’t know what that’s like. You were probably plucked straight out of the brooding caverns and put right into some noble’s waiting arms, am I right? And then they imprinted on you.”

An angry green flush rose on Disciple’s cheeks. “There’s nothing wrong with being raised by adult trolls! Yes, they did imprint on me. I did acquire some of their personality and abilities, just like I would have with a lusus. And I turned out fine.” She narrowed her eyes.

Darkleer kept his focus on the wires in his hands.

“You know what you are Darkleer?”

“What’s that?”

“A hypocrite. Vantas saved your life today and you’re judging him on blood color! You’d probably die from happiness if an empress took over again. Is that what you want? Another Peixes empire?”

Darkleer braided the wires. “And what if I do?”

Dolorosa saw Disciple gape. “Then you’re insane.”

Just as the words left her lips, Vantas stumbled out of the door. The black and white AR droid followed closely behind him. Dolorosa caught a glimpse of the Crab on his back in the house as Vantas shut the wooden door behind him. No one spoke as he limped towards them.

Disciple was on her feet first, hands splayed before her like Vantas would fall at any moment. Dolorosa couldn’t blame her. Vantas looked about ready to topple in the sand. His lip was split. One of his eyes was already swelling shut, and there were scratches all up and down his arms.

Disciple whispered, “Are… are you o-“

“Good fight, kid.” Darkleer said from the ground.

“Are those yours now?” Dolorosa asked as she gracefully raised herself.

Vantas frowned, and then realized she was talking about the two curved sickles in his hands. “Oh…” Vantas said quietly. “I guess they are. I had to fight him for them.”

Dolorosa nodded. Vantas looked at the ground for a long moment before meeting her gaze and nodding to.

Disciples’ dismay was evident all the way to Pinch’s shop. To her credit though, she hid it very well. All the while Darkleer talked with Pinch and fitted the hyperdrive on a transport speeder Dolorosa stood a little ways behind Vantas. Disciple had no part to play.

Dolorosa watched Vantas from afar. She had promised to protect him with her life, and she would. Vantas had passed his final test into adulthood, so now he would be treated as so.

“Vantas,” Dolorosa said sharply. Both he and his droid turned to face her.

“You now have the rest of your life ahead of you, do you understand this?”

Vantas looked up. His eyes did something she hadn’t seen before. They bunched up around the edges into a kind of determination she could tell he wasn’t used to. “Yes, I know,” he said softly.

Dolorosa did not kneel to his level. She faced him as an equal now. They could see each other as they were. “I want you to train at the Jedi Temple. I feel you have potential, even though you’re far older than is usually-“

“I’ll do it.”

“Do not interrupt me.”

Vantas was taken aback. His half scowl melted into some form of surprise. Dolorosa started again, “Because you seem to be about fourteen, far older than is usual, this will be a narrow chance, and it will take a lot of hard work. This is more than a commitment, Vantas. This will be your life. I ask again, do you want to come to the Jedi Temple with us?”

Immediately, “Yes, Master Dolorosa.”

Now she smiled softly, “I look forward to seeing the Jedi you become.” He smiled back.

Darkleer stepped into the front part of the shop. Pinch counted stacks of metallic computerized chips on the counter and tilted a claw at Dolorosa. “You drove a hard bargain, miss,” Pinch said.

“I do try,” she responded.

“Ah well, you win some,” it flipped a chip and caught it, “and you lose some.” It nodded to Vantas. “I might even miss you.”

Vantas glared, “I won’t miss you.”

Pinch’s garbled chuckled followed them out of the shop.

Disciple grabbed Dolorosa’s shoulder as Darkleer helped Vantas into the small speeder. “Is this what we do now?” she asked, her voice strained. Dolorosa didn’t understand so she stayed silent. Disciple huffed then asked again, “Do we just pretend he’s not still a kid? Do we just pretend he wasn’t ripped from his guardian?”

Dolorosa removed Disciple’s hand, but gently so. “The Crab wasn’t his father, Disciple,” she said. “It’s not like that. This is how it is.”

Disciple’s face fell.

“But,” Dolorosa continued, “do not let this experience stop you from treating him differently. Darkleer and I knew this was coming. Treat him how you will, and if he tells you otherwise, treat him differently. Respect him as you would anyone else. He’s going to be fine.”

“Come on!” Darkleer shouted. Dolorosa smiled again at Disciple and got onto the speeder behind the hyperdrive. The bed of the vehicle hovered a few feet above the ground. Disciple took her place on the bench up front near Vantas. Dolorosa stood at the back of the speeder, next to the AR droid. It nodded to her as she stepped on.

Darkleer pulled a few levers and the transport began to plod to towards their ship under the three moons far above. A pleasant night engulfed the one vehicle caravan. There was no need for goggles or glasses and the wind felt cool on Dolorosa’s ashen skin.

Occasionally a dark object hovered on the horizon, but whenever Dolorosa cast her eyes to it, it darted away. She calmed her breathing, taking in every aspect of the silent desert until the Nubian ship was in full view.

As the transport came to a stop the belly of the ship opened up, spilling white light onto the sand. Psiioniic stepped out to greet them followed by the WV droid.

“Master,” Psiioniic greeted her tightly. “Good to know you’re alive, but we need to get out of here.”

“I know. I feel it too,” Dolorosa said. “Help Darkleer and Vantas install the hyperdrive.”

Disciple nodded to Psiioniic as she got on the ship.

“Vantas is the boy?” Psiioniic frowned.

“Hello,” Vantas waved from where he was undoing ties on the transport. His physical condition didn’t seem to affect the kindness at his disposal.

Psiioniic turned back to Dolorosa. “I don’t like him,” he declared.

“You don’t like anybody,” Dolorosa smiled. She turned. “Vantas, this is my Padawan. As you can see he has a lot to learn.”

Vantas raised an eyebrow, but shrugged it off, and continued his task.

“What about the part with the giant crab? I was looking forward to the part about the giant crab,” Psiioniic whined.

“I fought him,” Vantas grumbled as he strained to push the hyperdrive off the bed while Darkleer pulled.

Psiioniic frowned. “You had a lusus?” he asked as he walked over to help. Vantas nodded. “Huh. Congratulations. Welcome to the rest of the adult population. Have fun figuring out Republic taxes.”

“Sounds awesome,” Vantas heaved. Psiioniic and Darkleer set the hyperdrive down before luging the hunk of machinery up the ramp.

 

As the boys worked to install the hyperdrive Dolorosa listened. They didn’t offer any form of conversation she’d call interesting, only the expected technological lingo. Darkleer’s sentences were contradictory. He was trying so hard to be cold and impassive towards Psiioniic and Vantas but his stiff wording slipped into something fast and excited, only to have him stop himself and return to a tight jaw.

From where Dolorosa stood at the foot of the hanger door she could also hear Queen Leijon and her maidens speaking too soft to be understood. They sounded calm, if not concerned. State matters, Dolorosa decided.

Surrounding all of this was the silence of the Tatooine night. A desert lacking both wind and life is a silent one. She held out a hand to observe, running her other forefinger over the green tinted lines of her veins. Had society not changed she may be underground right now monitoring the brooding caverns. Had she been less in control of herself she would have shivered. She did not.

Instead she listened and watched the three moons. One had already begun to dip under the horizon.

“Boys, be quiet.”

Vantas, Darkleer, and Psiioniic all shut up.

“Can we fly?” Dolorosa asked as she calmly removed her lightsaber from her belt.

“Two more bolts to latch, should take two minutes,” Darkleer whispered from behind her.

“Make it thirty seconds.”

Only then did the rest of them notice the shrill of a motor racing towards them. Dolorosa paid no attention to the scrambling behind her as the noise got louder. She stepped into the soft sand and faced its direction.

Spiral horns made the attacker’s slim form bigger than it really was. Their blinding red lightsaber shot out from their silhouette as they leaped off their speeder straight into Dolorosa. Dolorosa blocked the strike but the attacker was already striking again, and again, and again. There was yelling and commotion, but all Dolorosa could see were a pair of ruthless rust irises, unblinking.

The Sith was relentless. A thrust to the left. A feint to the left. Dolorosa foxtrotted around her enemy. Their essence felt like thick oil. Her feet begged to slip but she stayed in time with the airy whisper guiding her hands. Her vertical slash didn’t harm the Sith, but pushed her back for just a moment.

The attacker did not smile or glare, or even steal a chance to tuck the long strand of black hair out of her face. She drove straight back into the fight.

“Dolorosa!” Vantas was shouting.

The troll attacking threw a swift strike to Dolorosa’s arm. Dolorosa twirled, finally landing a nick to the Sith’s arm. They reeled back, and Dolorosa breathed as she flung herself backwards. The Force carried her to the ramp of the rising ship, where she hit the back wall ungracefully, and slumped to the floor.

“Dolorosa!” Vantas kneeled next to her. She sheathed her weapon.

“Are you okay?” His big bright eyes had grown huge. Dolorosa felt the ship gaining velocity.

“I’m grand, darling.”


	11. The Jedi Council

The boy was evil. Psiioniic left the piloting to Darkleer. With a hyperdrive back they were on a smooth course for Coruscant. The boy had saved them all. Still, the boy was evil.

Psiioniic looked out at the elongated stars. Most people didn’t like being up front in hyperspace. It made them sick but Psiioniic was used to bright flashing lights. Hyperspace left him feeling like his mind was outside of the ship and he enjoyed that.

Dolorosa hadn’t listened to him. After the attack, when everyone had calmed down, he’d pulled her aside to speak alone.

“I’m telling you, the kid is bad news.”

Dolorosa met his eyes gravely. “I believe he is the Chosen One, Psiioniic.”

He glared. She frowned.                                                                                                                   

“Just look.” Held both his hands in front of him as if to pray but didn’t let his fingertips touch. All ten digits lit up in an electric display of energy. The brightest of all were his middle fingers.

“See this?” Despite the danger they were in, he still took the opportunity to double flip her off. Her disapproval face was worth it.

“I see it, Psiioniic. I know. He’s not one thing. But remember, neither are you.” She had turned but Psiioniic stopped her.

“Please don’t do the thing where you say something seemingly important and then leave me feeling like an idiot.”

“What I’m trying to say is think about how the boy must feel and think about how you felt at his age. Think about how I feel. And please, think about your hands, and what they tell you.”

He frowned at her. She took his hand and stared into his visor. “Okay?”

“Fine.”

Yet, as he sat in the cockpit, he knew it wasn’t fine. He knew the boy was… something. He held up his hands again. They’d all lessened a bit and would fade soon altogether it seemed. Thumbs were good days, pinkies bad. So the kid was good and bad. Index meant Dolorosa put up her guard, ring meant she took it easy. So the kid was dangerous and helpful. The middle was bright. The only other time his middle fingers had been bright was the day he met Dolorosa. So the kid… would change everything. Great.

Psiioniic stood up and went to sit in the doorway to the cockpit, back to one side of the frame, feet to the other. He did a round. Darkleer up front. Dolorosa watching the help plea recording with Disciple. The Queen in the only private chamber in the back with her other maidens. The droids powered down in the corner. Vantas…

Next to him. By his feet on the cabin side of the wall sat Vantas with his head down. He must have felt Psiioniic watching him. When he raised his head in his direction Psiioniic smiled.

“How you doing?”

Vantas shrugged. From under his knees he pulled out two brightly colored blades.

“I don’t know what to do with these,” Vantas said.

“You win those?”

“Yeah.”

They sat in respective silence. Disciple had glanced at them, then glanced away. That awkward tension of wanting to respect others filled the space between the three of them. She made eye contact with Psiioniic. Psiioniic raised an eyebrow to Vantas. Vantas shrugged. Psiioniic nodded at Disciple. Disciple came and sat on the floor with them.

“Hi,” she said.

“Hi,” Vantas replied.

Psiioniic noticed how hard Disciple was trying to look comfortable. “You okay?” he asked.

She tightened her lips. “The Queen is scared. Her people may be dying.”

“We’ll take care of this. Don’t worry about what you can’t control.”

She nodded for a moment before turning to Vantas. “What about you?”

The boy thought. “I like space. I hated Tatooine. I feel… excited.”

“You don’t sound very excited,” Psiioniic noted.

Vantas smiled, “A little shell shocked, I guess.”

Disciple was scrunching up her face. Finally she breathed out a little huff and asked, “Do you miss him?”

“No.”

Psiioniic wasn’t surprised, but that was only because he really didn’t have any preconceived notions about Vantas yet. He didn’t miss the creature that had raised him, big deal. Disciple on the other hand was visible taken aback.

“I feel... I think the word is ‘liberated’,” Vantas explained slowly. “As big of a part of my life as he was, we were always going to have to separate one day. I’m very content in the way we finally did.”

Disciple nodded thoughtfully and joined the triangle of respective silence.

 

A little under an hour later they arrived on Coruscant. Vantas would not shup up about ‘how cool the planet was’ and ‘how amazing the city looked’ and ‘how bright the buildings were’. As annoying as it was there were worse noises.

The ship landed smoothly at one of the many government buildings. Dolorosa exited the ship first, joining the Queen and her procession. Darkleer, Vantas, and Psiioniic followed them with the droids.  Officials from all kinds of planets and positions met them on the platform though one figure stuck out. She was impossible not to notice, exceeding six feet without the horns and easily topping eight counting them, Chancellor Peixes demanded all eyes without a single word.

“Queen Leijon! I am so glad you made it back safely,” she said taking the Queen’s hands in a show of affection. Psiioniic knew he shouldn’t have, but he tuned out most of their conversations. Politics, in his opinion, poisoned the mind.

More talk of planets and how to proceed with the Naboo affair when they boarded a luxurious cursing taxi. The words “vote of no confidence” were being thrown around a lot. Psiioniic was almost relived when they reached the senate building and said goodbye to the politicians, Darkleer, and Vantas.

“The Jedi Temple, please,” Dolorosa instructed the driver. Five minutes of air travel later they entered the simplistic and enormous Temple. Psiioniic had always appreciated the Jedi’s aesthetic choices.

Dolorosa had said nothing all the way to the Council Chambers but before they entered the hall leading to the doors she stopped.

“You are my Padawan and I trust you. If we speak of Vantas, I must know you are behind me.”

And if I’m not? When have my choices ever hindered you? Why are you even asking this? Psiioniic could have asked any of these questions. He didn’t though because he had thought about it and the kid deserved a chance like he’d been given a chance.

“I’m behind you.”

She nodded and entered the hall.

Psiioniic did not enjoy being in the Jedi Council Chambers. As he followed Dolorosa into the sunlit room memories of his youngling years flooded his mind. Get caught fighting, go to the Council. Steal a lightsaber from the practice room, go to the Council. Rewire his digital homework into a gaming network, go to the Council. He smiled at that one. Singe a kid’s arm to the point of hospitalization because he pissed you off, go to the Council. He bowed his head slightly.

Twelve Jedi were arranged in a semicircle around them.  Psiioniic nodded to a Senior Jedi named Summoner. Summoner took up a larger amount of seating space due to his insanely large horns and even larger wings. Still, the troll did so graciously. He’d always gone easy on Psiioniic, and made sure the boy wasn’t thrown out of the Temple for one misdemeanor or another.

The figure seated next to him was dwarfed in comparison. She inclined her head in way so that the light flashed over her red glasses. “What news do you bring us, Dolorosa?”

“Some good and some bad, Master Redglare.”

Redglare huffed and sat back in her chair. She was born and bred Alternian and everyone knew it. Her reputation as a great Jedi Master was known across the galaxy. Even before Psiioniic was initiated into the Temple he’d heard tales of her escapades throughout space. She didn’t even need to fight; usually she’d just talk her way out of situations, but boy when she did unsheathe that dragon headed saber…

“We were attacked by a Sith on Tatooine in our attempt to flee with Queen Leijon.”

Of course there were the expected gasps.

“A Sith? Do you have any idea what you’re saying?” Summoner asked, his deep, quiet voice shushing the room.

“I do, Master Summoner.”

Other Masters began to chime in.

“The Sith have been gone for thousands of years.”

“How could they have slipped by us?”

“Are you absolutely sure?”

Redglare cleared her throat. “Are you questioning Master Dolorosa’s honesty?”

A Council member answered, “No. I’m questioning the legitimacy of the attacker.”

“If Master Dolorosa says a Sith attacked her, I believe it.” Redglare had the floor. Psiioniic was a little vexed by the way she had gained so much respect. Nothing phenomenal, just a little aggravation. He’d never admit it to anyone and have them live to say it, but as a kid, what with glaring at Redglare so many times, he totally had felt a little black for her. Youth, he had decided, was a terrible thing.

Dolorosa recounted the attack for her audience. After the Council did some discussing a conclusion was reached.

“This attack on Queen Leijon’s guardians means the Republic is already in danger. Dolorosa, you must find this Sith and put an end to this shadow before it grows.” Redglare nodded to Dolorosa. “May the Force be with you.”

Psiioniic stiffened. This was it. The big bombshell, ready to be dropped.

“May I be permitted to bring something to the Council’s attention?” Dolorosa asked.

Redglare huffed, “It seems you already have. Permission granted.”

“While on Tatooine we found a troll boy tuned with the Force like I have never seen. He was kindhearted enough to help us escape the planet. Council, his blood is red.”

Silent, but only for a moment. “You’ve uncovered a Sith and the Chosen One within a few days. You have been busy,” Redglare said.

Dolorosa smiled. “I have no doubt the Force led us to the boy. His name is Vantas. I request he be tested. Psiioniic and I did a prelim on our cruiser. His midi-chlorians are off the charts.”

Summoner leaned forward in his chair to shift his wings. “You think this child will bring balance to the Force?”

“I’m sure of it.”

Psiioniic pursed his lips minutely.

“Is your Padawan?” Redglare asked.

Psiioniic felt all eyes fall on him. He couldn’t see past Redglare’s glasses but he also knew she couldn’t see past his visor. Maybe that was why he talked back to her so much as a kid. They were equals in the staring game.

“I believe Vantas is going to change the galaxy,” he said definitely.

“For better or for worse?”

“I have no idea.”

She nodded to herself. “Well that inspires my confidence immensely. Bring him in.”

 

Dolorosa hadn’t said thank you. Psiioniic hadn’t expected her too, but still. It would have been nice. They sat in a waiting area with some dancing light things floating above them. Dolorosa’s eyes were glued to a screen she held in her hands displaying the ongoing Senate meeting. Politicians were yelling about voting on a new Supreme Chancellor. Queen Leijon seemed pissed, which was cool.

Psiioniic grew tired leaning towards Dolorosa’s side of the bench they sat on. In an extremely undignified manner he heaved a sigh and slouched forward to rest his elbows on his knees and his chin on his palms.

“Does stepping into this building revert you to a child automatically or do you just act this way by your own volition?” Dolorosa asked sharply.

Psiioniic fixed his posture for a moment and then slouched back against the wall behind him. “Master, what if he’s not the one? What if he ends up hurting the galaxy?”

“Then I’ll admit that for the first time in my life that I was wrong.” Her eyes didn’t leave the screen.

“Raptors. Jungle planet. Two revolutions ago.”

This earned a cursory glance in his direction. “I had that entirely under control.”

“You were in the hospital for a week.”

At this she set the device down and faced him. “I have a feeling, Psiioniic. I know you are wary of the boy and that’s good. Never take things at face value. But please continue to give him a chance until he earns your distrust.”

“Alright,” he sighed.

 

Hours passed. Psiioniic spent a good half hour early on contemplating how ticked off Dolorosa would be if he started blowing spit bubbles. An hour after he decided against it, he chose to defy himself and opened his jaw slowly to keep the saliva sphere from bursting on his sharp teeth.

“Pop that and you better hope Vantas is dark because maybe then he’ll kill me before I kill you.”

Psiioniic didn’t pop it.

He tried to keep up with the politics in action on Dolorosa’s screen. Some voting happened. Peixes was voted into the position of Supreme Chancellor. This caused Psiioniic to shiver, but he reminded himself not to judge her on her blood color. That’d be insane coming from him. Yet, his mind darted back to Darkleer and those trolls on Naboo. Ugh. Politics. He instead started a thumb war with himself. He lost.

Finally around sunset Vantas’s trials had been completed. Psiioniic and Dolorosa were called back into the Council Chamber.

Vantas stood respectfully in front of the Council. Dolorosa walked up behind him and faced Redglare.

“Dolorosa,” Redglare started, “It is true the boy has red blood. It is true he had phenomenal midi-chlorians and talent. But he is too old and to angry. We will not train him.”

Dolorosa’s jaw opened a fraction of an inch. “He is the Chosen One. I will train him myself.”

Psiioniic cocked his head. What the hell?

“Psiioniic is ready to face the trials. We can easily earn the title of Knight,” she continued.

Oh, hell yeah. “I am ready to face the trails. She will have a free position for a Padawan.” Psiioniic confirmed.

He could see Vantas wanting to swivel to face Dolorosa but to his credit the boy did not yield to his desires.

Redglare did something Psiioniic had never seen. She took off her glasses and faced Dolorosa eye to eye. They were a stunning shade of teal. So that’s what her color was. Huh.

“Dolorosa I am saying no. Now, the Senate has just voted a new Supreme Chancellor in. Queen Leijon is leaving for Naboo and you need to be by her side ready to intercept anyone who may try to attack her. The boy is in your charge, I understand that. Take him with you if you must but do not give him a name. I am I making myself clear?”

Dolorosa nodded.

“Then leave, and may the Force be with you.”


	12. Keeper

They waited for a taxi outside the Temple. Dolorosa spoke with some Jedi a ways behind them.

“Psiioniic?”

“Yes, Vantas?”

“Did I do something wrong?”

Psiioniic sighed at the sky. With all the smog and lights from the city it was impossible to see the stars. After a moment he turned to Vantas. “You wanna know the truth, Van?”

“I won’t like it, will I?”

“No, you probably won’t.”

“Tell me anyway.”

“You scare people.” Psiioniic watched Vantas frown. “You hold a lot of power inside you, and a lot of feelings that can get you into trouble. But hey, look at me-“Vantas looked up. “-I had… have those problems to. It’s not a wall forever. You’ll learn to live with it.”

“But I won’t ever be a Jedi like you, will I?”

Psiioniic shrugged. “You never know.”

A short transport pulled up in front of them. Dolorosa said farewell to the others and joined them in the car.

“Vantas,” she said sharply. “I am not allowed to train you but that doesn’t mean you can’t still learn. Observe. Make connections. You’re fate is not yet decided. Do you understand?”

Vantas nodded. “Dolorosa?”

“Yes?”

“What did Redglare mean by ‘name me’?” he asked.

Dolorosa leaned forward to explain, “Once you are on your path to become a Jedi you are given a name. It can come from anywhere. Your home planet, your parents, your history, or your whims. It’s more of a title really. A lot of cultures do it to indicate a rite of passage. More traditional trolls are among those who still keep the practice.”

Vantas nodded. Psiioniic expected him to ask more Jedi questions but the boy remained quiet for the rest of the trip to the Senate building.

Queen Leijon and her maidens were waiting for them on a landing pad. Once again, Disciple had donned her green robes and a respectful manner. Darkleer hung back with the droids. WV had somewhere deep in his software a program that must have been specifically made just to annoy AR. Darkleer sure was amused by it.

“Your majesty, we are honored to ensure your safety once again,” Dolorosa said as they approached.

Vantas gave a little wave to Disciple. Disciple gave a little smile back.

“Thank you, Dolorosa. Shall we be off?”

 

The flight to Naboo was filled with politics but at least they were the interesting kind.

“I intend on taking back my planet,” Queen Leijon was saying.

“I understand that, your highness,” a guard commented. Three royal guards accompanied them on the cruiser. “But there is no mobile army on the ground and you will be arrested by the Federation as soon as you step foot on Naboo.”

Queen Leijon smiled. “Darkleer, please tell the capitan what you told me earlier.”

Darkleer stepped up like a solider. “There _is_ actually a standing army on Naboo, out in the meadows of the east. Four troll colonies are scattered on that side of the planet, our numbers exceeding anything Theed could scrounge up.”

“Are you sure they’ll help us?” the captain asked.

Darkleer gulped. “I hope that they see reason.”

 

Time passed. As they neared the lush planet, only one Federation starship could be seen. The blockade was useless now because the planet had been occupied.

“It’s a droid control ship…” Psiioniic said.

“Can’t we just take it out?” 

The adults all turned to Vantas. Vantas shrugged.

“Unfortunately, no,” Dolorosa explained. “This ship doesn’t have enough fire power. We’d be shot down.”

“We’re gonna land,” Psiioniic explained, “And hope some very mean people are smarter than they look.” 

Darkleer glared but didn’t dispute Psiioniic’s terminology. He took his seat in the pilot’s spot and steered the ship into the atmosphere. Minutes later they were flying low in a breathtaking valley. Psiioniic took the controls while Darkleer peered over the front view ports.

“They’re not there,” he announced.

“How do you know?” Psiioniic asked.

Darkleer pointed to a patch of red flowers in the corner of the clearing. “Those were brought topside, they don’t grow above ground. It means we’ve retreated to the hills.” He reclaimed the controls and swiveled the ship around.

Psiioniic kept his focus on copiloting and not on anything else. Battles weren’t easy, but they were far less complicated than wars. This was a full on insurgence. Losing a battle isn’t always the end, but a war could spell death for thousands.

They reached the foot of the hills and landed near the cover of tall trees.

“Walking from here,” Darkleer said to everyone.

 

No one complained through the long hike. Psiioniic had seen a lot in this galaxy but a woman in full queenly garb keeping up with everyone else was the most insane by far. Deep in the wooded hills, Darkleer help up a hand to alert them.

It was a serene spot. There was enough shade to not have to squint their eyes. A brook cut across the thick grass and a wall of rock blocked off the entire back side.

“You’ve been busy…” a female voice chimed from above the wall. “Bringing the Queen to our refuge? Darkleer…” she made a clicking sound. “…so naughty. I’m afraid you are going to be culled for this one.”

She stepped out in view atop the wall in time with dozens of guards swinging from their hiding places, guns drawn.  Their leader was a fuchsia and she wore her colors proud. Her long black hair was braided into a crown, and her gills glittered with golden piercings.

“Keeper, we’ve come to seek your-“

“’We’? You’re a ‘we’ now? Dear me Darkleer, you really have gone to dogs.” Keeper jumped and landed to the ground gracefully. She sauntered towards them until her golden javelin tip was placed comfortably under Darkleer’s throat.

Psiioniic breathed and focused on the water. Every inch of his skin tingled with rage but, strangely, he didn’t want Vantas to see him spark.

Keeper’s pink eyes drifted over the crowd before her. Her tight leather shifted as her shoulders bounced in amusement. “My my, you have the whole rainbow here, don’t you! Greens and yellows, even a little freak.” She bared her pointed teeth at Vantas, who took a step back. She cackled.

“Keeper,” Queen Leijon started.

“Oh, she speaks! Where were your words when the droids attacked our planet?” Keeper lowered her javelin from Darkleer’s throat and threw it an inch from Queen Leijon’s foot. “Where were you then?”

Queen Leijon opened her mouth to speak, but Disciple stepped in front of her.

“I am Queen Leijon,” she said, lowering her hood. Psiioniic convulsed minutely to convey his utter sense of ‘what the hell?’

“This is my decoy. I apologize for the trickery but you must know how it is to be a leader.”

Keeper scoffed. “Yes, but I don’t hide my face from my people. I fight!”

Psiioniic shrugged his shoulders at Dolorosa. Dolorosa gave him a ‘shush’ face. Vantas stood slack jawed in awe.

“I know. Please, help us. Your people have been on this planet as long as mine have. This is _our_ planet, and we cannot get it back from the Federation without your assistance. Please.”

Keeper narrowed her eyes at Disciple, who met her gaze evenly. “What do I get in return?”

Disciple’s face lost composure for a split second. “Aside from a free planet? Aside from your home returned?”

“We are going to fight for this planet and once we win we are going to take your capital and your farmland and your waterways and this is going to happen if you don’t start bargaining, deary.” Keeper raised an eyebrow.

Disciple smiled. “War first, negotiations after?”

Keeper smiled back. “Never in your life. Terms. Now. Or leave.”

“Diplomatic ties. Regular trade. What do you want?”

“Voting rights for me and my people on Republic laws that effect Naboo and a representative on the Nabubian government.”

“Done.”

They shook hands.

 

As much as Psiioniic hated them, they were a damn fine military unit. Within the hour thousands of trolls were divided into groups. Platoons of low bloods were led by single teal blooded lieutenants. Companies were led by blue bloods. Battalions were lead purple bloods. Four violets had been running the colonies on Naboo, but Keeper oversaw it all.

As much as Keeper hated Disciple, she gave her respect as a leader and soon the two of them fell into the job like clockwork. Vantas stayed near Psiioniic. The two of them followed the commotion as the army marched to the edge of the forest.

“Isn’t Keeper mad that the whole battle is just a diversion?” Vantas asked Psiioniic.

“I don’t think so,” Psiioniic answered. “She’s an asshole, sure, but she’s smart. This battle will ensure the safety of her people and that’s all she cares about right now.”

Vantas nodded as Dolorosa and Disciple walked up to them, trailed by the three guards from Coruscant. Disciple had changed out of her robes into more functional clothing. “We need to get going,” Disciple explained. Psiioniic always had a vibe from her, but he was a bit miffed he hadn’t realized she was the freaken Queen. It made sense, though, when he thought about it. Leijon was the youngest queen in the planet’s history. Aside from the fact she wasn’t as respected, her age made people think her and her planet were easy targets, hence the takeover of Naboo.

She continued, “While the army is drawing the droids away from the city, we will sneak into the city and detain the Federation Viceroy. That’ll be it for the Federation.”

Psiioniic nodded followed her to the transport ship to get them to Theed.

“What about Darkleer?” Vantas asked.

Disciple bit her lip in incredulous amusement. “Keeper wants him to be her second in command. Some high bloods are pissed, but he, and I quote, ‘apparently knows how to deal with ungracious outlanders.’ She requests he be their representative, which I am a little relieved about.”

Upon entering the transport, Psiioniic sat in the pilot’s seat and Vantas slid into the copilot seat.

“What are you doing?”

“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m copiloting?” he smiled.

“Alright.”

 

Vantas was a surprisingly good copilot. Dolorosa had told Psiioniic of Vantas’s racing skills, but flying a transport ship was nothing like a podracer. Still, the kid just knew. As they flew to the backside of the city more plans were solidified. They’d need to release some pilots to take out the droid control ship. It’d be risky, but necessary. Everything hinged on getting the Viceroy.

Everyone decided it would be safer to land a mile from the city. Disciple turned to Vantas, “You don’t have to come with us. You can stay here. It’s safer.”

But Vantas wouldn’t have it. He hopped out of the transport ship and stood by Dolorosa. “I’m coming with you.”

 

They hiked a path to a storm drain and climbed inside. It was a short walk to a door in the stone tunnels, and then a staircase leading into the city. Psiioniic really had to resist the urge to grab Vantas’s hand. Sure, the kid was capable, but he looked so small. His swollen eye could open after the medics on Coruscant, but he still looked like hell.

It was a matter of darting from wall to wall, just like him and Dolorosa had done not even a week ago. They got into the palace the same way, through the courtyards. Vantas took a deep whiff of the flower heavy air as they jogged through.

Disciple led them to a huge ballroom on the west side of the palace where hundreds of people were being held captive by droids. Dolorosa told Vantas to stay back. The dozen or so droids were taken out before they had a chance to shoot. Dolorosa and Psiioniic were cutting the robots down while the Queen and her guards shot the ones further back.

Civilians had been moved to camps in the country. Only guards, pilots, and officials were being held here. They took twenty guards for themselves and set the rest to escorting the non-vital persons away from the fighting. It was only a matter of time before their procession of pilots, guards, Jedi, and the Queen herself was noticed.

Battle droids shot at them through the halls as they ran through the palace.

“Hold them off!” Disciple yelled. Six guards fell back to cover them as the pilots and the rest of the company barreled towards the hanger.

“Vantas find somewhere safe and stay there! You hear me!” Dolorosa yelled. Vantas nodded and followed close behind Disciple as they reached the hanger.

Dolorosa and Psiioniic fell back to help the five guards at the hanger entrance. Psiioniic held the front of the entrance, deflecting lasers over and over. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the green of Dolorosa’s lightsaber behind him doing the same thing. Even though he had two sabers and she had one, it pained him to say she was doing a far better job.

The few droids remaining were gunned down. Moments later, the six other guards ran down the hall to back up their Queen. Psiioniic nodded to Dolorosa and they stormed the hanger. He swiped and dodged and jumped and ran through droids surrounding him. Pilots streaked out of the hanger. A few ships were gunned down before the droids shooting were stopped, but most made it.

The hanger stood still, finally. Smoke and the smell of sparking wires filled the air.

A guard stepped up to Queen Leijon. “Madam, the Viceroy is likely to be in the throne room.”

She faced Psiioniic and Dolorosa, “Shall we go then?”

They started for the hanger door.

“Hey!”

Psiioniic looked up to see Vantas’s head poke up out of a Naboo fighter.

“Stay there, Vantas! Do not step foot out of that ship!” Dolorosa called.

Horror etched itself onto Vantas’s face. He pointed violently behind them. Psiioniic whirled. Droids streamed into the hanger, but made way for a figure with spiral horns.


	13. Yellow Six

Vantas didn’t know where to look. Near the entrance of the hanger Dolorosa and Psiioniic swirled in practiced tandem around the Sith, but they only achieved keeping her away from the Queen. Droidekas were wheeling into the hanger firing at Leijon and her squad.

He cursed under his breath and gestured around the cockpit he was seated in. Which ones were the guns? Which one was the eject?

Blasts and lightsaber clashes bombarded his ears while smoke stung his nostrils.

“Don’t think…” he whispered to himself. “It’s just like a podracer. With more buttons.”

Vantas clicked the green switch near the yoke. A _hiss_ sounded as the glass canopy lowered and clicked around the cockpit effectively muffling the noise. He jabbed a button. A screen lit up with sights aligned in front of him. He grabbed a joystick under one side of the yoke and yanked.

The sights whirled until the droidekas were dead center. He fired.

Noise shook the cockpit but Vantas resisted the urge to cover his ears. He fired again and again until the attacking droids were decimated. Queen Leijon nodded thanks before signaling to her squad and jogging away.

Dolorosa and Psiioniic were nowhere to be seen. Vantas sat back in the cockpit and flipped a silver switch near the monitor on a whim.

“-backup! We’re getting slaughtered up here!”

“I’m going in, do you copy?”

“Don’t do it! You’ll get- no!”

There was more yelling from multiple voices and before Vantas knew what he was doing he was already strapped in and gunning the fighter’s engine. An enormous roar shook the ship as it thundered out of the hanger and into Naboo’s sapphire blue skies.

“Whoa…” He could see the city. It was beautiful. He knew somewhere on the other side of the planet thousands of trolls were fighting for their home, possibly dying. He couldn’t think of it though. He couldn’t think of anything. All his efforts were being poured into a tugging at his fingertips, the same tug he got while racing.

Flip this switch. Turn that lever halfway to the left. Keep it steady.

As he left the atmosphere the noise got quieter. Soon there was only a gentle hum and some beeping under the chorus of voices bleeding through the monitor. Stars and blackness opened up around him and suddenly there was nothing to tether him to gravity or direction. The only force that held him in his seat were Gs.

A flash of red exploded past him.

“Why isn’t your shield up, Yellow Six?” a voice shouted through the monitor.

“Me?” Vantas asked, scooping up a helmet he’d just noticed tucked by his feet. It was too large and fit awkwardly on his horns, but the yellow visor dimmed the red blasts from the battle up ahead. “How do I put on the shields?” he screamed.

He closed his eyes and jabbed. When he opened them the monitor displayed a version of his fighter surrounded by a pulsing red net. He heaved a breath. “Whew… oh crap!” Another red blast shot towards him. His arms strained against the yoke, pulling just in time to barely avoid the blast.

“Get your head in the fight, Yellow Six!” someone yelled.

Vantas took a deep breath and stopped thinking. His vision was filled with the dogfight around him. Space was nauseating. A pilot flew upside-down from his perspective, tailed by two small black Federation fighters. The behemoth Federation droid ship spewed more and more fighters towards the Nubian crew. Vantas was firing without thinking, damaging black ships as they neared.

“Nice shooting, Yellow Six!”

He didn’t hear it. The fleet was bombarding the front side of the ship but no one seemed to be concerned with the side facing opposite of the planet.

A single word popped into his head: communication.

He heaved the yoke back and doubled around the outskirts of the fight. A fighter was tailing him, according to the monitor. Vantas growled and veered his fighter left, then banked right to land two solid shots on the enemy’s tail. Back on course, he flew wide around the ship.

Red lasers shot out like aimed lighting from the huge ships sides. Vantas weaved to avoid them but the shields still took most of the impact. The blasts came out of nowhere, with no warning sound. His eyes were pulled to the monitor. A little red line was headed for his left wing. He veered down, just as a laser shot over him. So he did have warning.

His hand gunned a lever above the monitor and the fighter slammed him back in the seat as it launched forward, clearing the side of the droid ship with too much power. Enemy fighters spotted his course.

“Oh no.”

Vantas spiraled and barreled into a line of fighters, getting blasts from all sides.

“How the hell did Yellow Six get over there?”

“He’s almost to the communication bridge, cover him!”

“All units to the backside of the droid ship! Go! Go! Go!”

Yellow fighters zoomed into his peripheral vision and took out his attackers. A new color had shown up on the monitor, a blinking blue square on the upper right hand corner of the screen. Vantas whipped the fighter in its direction and it moved like the needle of a compass. Back on sights mode, he steered the ship until the blue dot was centered in the screen, right on an unassuming side of the droid ship.

He fired. The lasers were absorbed on contact.

“They’ve still got their shields up!” Vantas yelled as he pulled up to come around for another shot.

“Did anyone see what happened?”

“Did he take the shot?”

“The shields are still up, Yellow Leader.”

“Yellow Two, take them out!”

“Yellow Six, be ready to go in again, do you copy?”

Vantas clipped the wing of a fighter before punching a random button. The guns stared going off in bursts. He hit the button off, and tried the one next to it. A crackle filled up in his helmet next to his ear.

“I copy, Yellow Leader.”

“Who the hell is that?”

“Is that a kid?”

A translucent wave rolled over the wall of ship outside of Vantas’s fighter.

“Yellow Two has taken down the shields! Repeat! Yellow Two has taken down the shields!”

Vantas pulled the fighter into a 180 and flew upside-down to his previous position to the wall again. He jammed the rapid fire button and pounded into the side of the ship.

Silent explosions rocked the ginormous starship. Vantas pulled back, yelling as he did, to fall in line with the other fighters. A human in the Nubian fighter next to him shook his fist joyfully at Vantas. Vantas smiled back.

“Who the hell is this guy?”

Vantas saw the man’s mouth move as his voice came over the monitor. The remaining pilots formed a V on their way back to Naboo.

“I don’t know, Yellow Leader, but can we keep him?”

Vantas’s cheek started to ach from grinning. His shoulders relaxed as they entered the atmosphere and the fighter shook a little. He tightened his grip again, still smiling.

The planet was even more beautiful from a small ship like this. There was so much more to see. As the blue engulfed the stars, Vantas flinched. Something icy poked itself into his heart and chased his grin away.

“Dolorosa?”


	14. Seeing Red

“Hey!”

Psiioniic looked up to see Vantas’s head poke up out of a Naboo fighter.

“Stay there, Vantas! Do not step foot out of that ship!” Dolorosa called.

Horror etched itself onto Vantas’s face. He pointed violently behind them. Psiioniic whirled. Droids streamed into the hanger but made way for a figure with spiral horns behind them. An unadulterated, primal, sickening dread clamped itself around him.

The Sith unsheathed her lightsaber coolly, as if she had nothing better to do. Dolorosa and Psiioniic both fell into a fighting position as their lightsabers lit. Psiioniic heard the telltale _clicks_ of droidekas behind them but he didn’t waver. He swallowed hard to try and steel himself to win.

With a grunt, she threw herself at Dolorosa. That was a mistake. Dolorosa fell back, allowing Psiioniic to jump in with his dual sabers. The Sith whirled left and right manically but was still landing clashes. Explosions rocked the hanger as someone started firing what sounded like fighter guns. He couldn’t turn to look though, the Sith was insane. Her movements contained all the fluidity and power of a full-fledged Master. She struck and pivoted in a martial, deadly way.

Psiioniic jabbed the same time as Dolorosa. The Sith fell back. She launched herself over them, impressively making it back to the center of the hanger. Psiioniic ran, felt the tug in his chest, and leaped. One of his lightsabers sparked off the Sith’s before his feet touched the ground.

Dolorosa was already there dancing circles around the Sith. Psiioniic whirled to avoid a strike and saw Queen Leijon nodding to someone. Droids lay destroyed about the hanger.

The Sith screamed as she fell back towards a wall. Dolorosa chased after her, her green capes flapping in her wake. Psiioniic lost sight of them for a moment as they barreled through a door. When he entered the space around him changed from the lofty hanger to a complicated generator room. Dolorosa and the Sith were battling up ahead, nearing a hallway.

Psiioniic saw Dolorosa shift to strike but the Sith bounded upwards. Psiioniic yelled as he used the Force to follow her to a narrow bridge above them. The whole room was filled with catwalks that crisscrossed the air up to a high ceiling. This time Psiioniic reached her first.

He whirled his two sabers on her relentlessly. Red on blue, then red on red. For a moment there was a stalemate. Her lightsaber was caught between his. Sweat poured off Psiioniic’s face. Sparks coming out of his eyes clouded his vision. Blue and red flashed. He felt her saber slipping towards his wrists. There was something green and a yell.

In a desperate moment he threw one saber in the air. Psiioniic closed his eyes and threw off his visor. He felt the lightsaber land back in his hand.

“Dolorosa!” he called, eyes still jammed shut.

“One! Two! One! Two!” she started calling back. He followed the noise with his head. Her voice was strained but kept a steady volume like they’d agreed on in practice but had never had the means to try.

“Remember, Psiioniic,” she had told him a long time ago, “I don’t like the idea of you releasing energy in battle but if you must, we need to have a plan.”

Fire on two, that’s what they agreed on. Fire on two.

“One!”

She was to his left above him, closer. The blood rushing in his ears almost drowned out her voice. If not that it was probably the stabbing pain behind his eyes.

“Two!”

He yelled. Psiioniic hated that, it was so cliché but there was no other way. He yelled and heard a scream and a strange buzzing noise and a body hit the bridge.

He opened his eyes. They were swimming with yellow tears. Dolorosa and the Sith lay in a heap on a catwalk four levels up and to his left. A chunk of concrete was missing a level above them. Dust hung lazily in the air and ozone burned his nostrils.

“Master!” Psiioniic jumped onto one platform, then the next, but when he was one catwalk away Dolorosa rolled violently. The Sith sprang to her feet. The left side of her head charred beyond recognition. Her hair has been mostly burned away but the only eye that remained opened lit with a dark ferocity Psiioniic had never seen.

The Sith screeched and raged on Dolorosa. As Psiioniic touched down on the catwalk his Master and her attacker were already on the other side entering a doorway. He raced after them.

Psiioniic nearly tripped as he skidded to a stop before a wall of red light. He blinked. Without his visor all colors seemed more red or blue but this definitely was a wall of red. Of lasers.

It was a hallway. Some kind of security system divided it into lasered off sections. Dolorosa was two sections in her back to Psiioniic facing the Sith. The Sith was five in, clutching her face and heaving. Her left horn had been broken in half by the explosion. He had no idea how she was still standing. The pain should have completely incapacitated her.

There was a _tick._ He saw Dolorosa stiffen. The lasers clicked off and everyone was running. _Tick._ Psiioniic was where Dolorosa had been. Green droplets dotted the floor. He swallowed hard. No one landed strikes on Dolorosa. For a horrifying second he thought he hurt her, but then he remembered that any wound inflicted by him would have been cauterized instantly.

Dolorosa was in the Sith’s previous containment and the Sith was two ahead, in the last section.

_Tick._

Psiioniic sprinted but so did everyone else. The Sith ran out but turned to face Dolorosa. Dolorosa got out and met the Sith readily. Psiioniic’s legs burned.

_Tick._

Red. Everything happened through the wall of buzzing red. Dolorosa whirled and pushed and beat the Sith back and back. The room was small and circular but had no doors, only a single, innocent key pad in the center with a glass covering.

Psiioniic’s sparks were ricocheting off the lasers back to him, biting his skin but he didn’t care. Dolorosa pushed the Sith back. The Sith’s legs gave. She kneeled on the floor under the force of Dolorosa’s lightsaber.

Then the Sith’s legs moved so fast Psiioniic almost missed it. She kicked Dolorosa’s legs out from under her, ramming her saber up as she did so. Dolorosa’s body hitched as her organs were burned from the inside. Green sputtered from her slack jaw. The Sith pushed Dolorosa’s body off her and fell back, breathing heavily.

_Tick._

His own scream filled his ears. The red and the blue filled up everything and were then replaced by white, and black after that.

Psiioniic fell to his knees. He called for his master’s name but only heard ringing. He called again, screamed until his throat feeling like it was going to tear itself apart. He felt tears running down his cheeks.

On his hands and knees he inched forward. Something hard met his hands. He followed the curve of the body to the head and felt a single spiral horn. He jerked away and reached over it. A shaking hand grasped his.

He yelled his master’s name again, awkwardly crawling over the Sith’s charred body to reach Dolorosa so as not to let go of her hand. Her body shook and felt wet under Psiioniic’s fingers. Psiioniic’s hand went to her face and felt her dripping lips. He had no idea if she was talking or screaming or crying. He ghosted his fingers over her horns to confirm it was really her.

There was a pain on his forearm. He cried out and yanked his hand away but Dolorosa’s grip was like iron. Psiioniic realized she was carving something into his arm with her sharp claws. He moved so that she was propped leaning on his chest. Psiioniic felt no shame as he cried into her hair, feeling every movement of her shaking claws etching her final words into his flesh.


	15. Signless

Every bone in Vantas’s body ached. When they had landed the pilots stormed him, shouting and whooping and being an all-around jovial bunch, but Vantas couldn’t. A spike had been driven through his chest and he didn’t know why. After all the hair ruffles and congratulations and invitations to a Nubian pilot academy he finally slipped away from the hanger.

A procession was just leaving the far end of the hallway when Vantas peaked out. Not knowing what else to do he followed them.

As he got nearer he saw what all the security was about. Disciple, no, Queen Leijon marched in front of a greasy looking troll in a purple cape. A guard held a gun to his back. The Viceroy. Vantas followed them until they had almost reached the courtyard. Disciple exchanged a few words with the captain of the guard and fell back. Vantas rushed up to her as soon as the guards rounded the corner.

“Vantas!” she exclaimed when she saw him. Her face was sweaty and her raven hair disheveled but she looked happier than he’d ever seen her. As soon as she laid eyes on him though, her face fell. “Vantas, what’s wrong?”

Red started to swim in his vision. “Disciple I fear something terrible has happened to Master Dolorosa.”

She stared at him. Her eyes darted from Vantas to the wall to the floor and back to him.

Disciple pulled a receiver out of her belt. “Captain, do we have location on the Jedi?”

 

Disciple walked into the room first. She tried to shove Vantas back before he entered but the image was already burned into his mind. Psiioniic sat rocking with Dolorosa in his lap. There was something charred lying next to them but Disciple had already moved him away before he got a better look.

Vantas sat down slowly on the catwalk away from the scene. He wished there was a wall he could hide behind but the walkway was to narrow.

“Psiioniic?” he heard Disciple ask.

“Who’s there?” Psiioniic shouted. Vantas flinched. He’d never heard Psiioniic’s voice raw and cracking.

“Psiioniic it’s me,” Disciple said softy.

“I said who’s there!” Psiioniic yelled again.

“It’s me! It’s Disciple!” she yelled.

“Disciple? Help! You need to help!”

She started shushing him, but stopped.

“I need a medical unit to the control room above the generator,” Disciple called in. Then she shouted, “It’s alright! Help is coming!”

“Help?” Psiioniic said. He wasn’t shouting now. “What the hell is gonna help this?” Again, quieter, “What the hell is gonna help her?”

Vantas hugged his knees close and shut his eyes so he wouldn’t have to look at the drops of red dripping from his face.

 

Vantas stayed with Disciple as long as he could but it wasn’t long enough. The med unit came and sedated Psiioniic so he’d let go of Dolorosa’s body. Disciple had to go back to being the fake queen’s handmaiden so she could meet with Chancellor Peixes and deal with Viceroy Dualscar so Vantas found a nice bench under some shady tree in the courtyard and observed the politicians. The fake Queen spoke regally to Chancellor Peixes as they strolled through the courtyard. Disciple didn’t as much as look at Vantas. He didn’t mind though. He knew she had a job to do and besides the conversation didn’t hold too much interest for him anyway.

He didn’t follow when they left. He tried to sort the day out in his mind but it really wasn’t clicking. Darkleer had done well, apparently. He had improved the trolls’ blasters last second and completely saved the battle until the communication had been knocked out, thanks to Vantas. Disciple and her crew stormed the throne room and apprehended Viceroy Dualscar. And Dolorosa had died.

He had had enough thinking, so he tilted his head back and closed his eyes. The birds sang something soft in the branches above him and the sweet scent of flowers met his nose.

 

Vantas woke up to the birds. He rubbed his eyes and sat up. A horrible popping noise came from his neck. ”Ow…” He stretched to the right. When he stretched to the left, his swinging fist was caught by a gloved hand.

Master Redglare held Vantas’s hand from where it had almost hit her square in the glasses.

“Did you have a nice nap?”

Vantas sat up and turned to the woman sitting next to him. She handed his hand back.

“Uh, no. Not really. I had a nightmare.”

Redglare nodded but didn’t speak.

Vantas continued. “Psiioniic was in it. He was crying.”

“Well, I should expect so.”

“No, not now. He looked… older.” Vantas looked at his hands. “I think he was crying because of me.”

Redglare kept her lenses cast towards the empty courtyard. Only in that silence did Vantas notice loud voices and music beyond the palace walls.

“Listen to your dreams, Vantas. The mind is peaceful in sleep. There the Force can speak freely to us. Come.”

She stood up and began walking.

 

They walked a long time. Vantas knew they could have gotten transport from someone but he figured Redglare wanted to walk for a reason. His body felt worse after the sitting nap. His arms and eye lids and heart sank further with every step but he did not complain.

They walked parallel to a huge parade for a while. The music was deafening. Children threw flowers and everyone danced. They’d released the citizens back to their home. Darkleer rode atop some animal next to the troll leader Keeper. He didn’t seen Vantas. Vantas was glad that they were all happy.

They walked on. They walked until they reached a boxy building on the edge of Theed. The entrances lead them to a huge room displaying a single pyre by the back columns. Behind the columns a lake stretched out red under the setting sun. Rays slanted through the spaces between the stones and played on the green fabric wrapped around Dolorosa’s body.

Many Jedi Vantas didn’t recognize made way for Redglare as she solemnly glided to the back of the room, Vantas in her wake. The Jedi with the wings, Vantas didn’t remember his name, stood by Psiioniic’s floating assistance chair near the pyre.

The two Jedi stopped their conversation when Redglare approached. They offered polite bows, which she and Vantas returned.

“Are you feeling better?” Vantas asked quietly. 

“Yes, once the residual energy wore off my sight returned to me, but the ears needed more assistance.” Psiioniic smiled from the chair but his voice was hoarse. His visor was replaced by a pair of sunglasses provided by the med unit. Even with the dark glasses to hide his face Psiioniic looked broken, and not in the physical sense. Vantas wanted to do something to make it better but there was nothing.

Redglare and the winged Jedi, Summoner was his name, leaned close to talk in hushed tones. Psiioniic put a hand on Vantas’s shoulder and directed him a few feet back.

“What are you going to do?” Vantas asked.

Psiioniic adjusted his glasses. “About?”

“Dolorosa. What are you going to do?”

“What I can do. Move on. Can you move on, Vantas?”

That spike was driven pretty deep. “I don’t know,” he admitted.

Psiioniic asked again. “Can you let this go?”

“Yes,” Vantas lied.

Psiioniic smiled. “Good. Because I am going to train you.”

Vantas gaped. He tried to think of thanks to sputter, of anything intelligible to say. Only one thing popped into his mind. A name.

“Signless!” he blurted out.

Psiioniic smiled knowingly and put a finger to his lips and pointed at the pyre. Redglare was lighting it with a torch.

Red and yellow flames consumed the woman who had believed in him. Signless snuck a glance at Psiioniic. He was rubbing his sleeve. Signless squinted. It was difficult to make out in the shadows, but under the transparent bandages, he could have sworn his old name was carved into Psiioniic’s arm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, there it is, the first installment! Thank you all so much for reading! Paradox Space Wars Book 2: Witches of Heart is finished. I'm a little under halfway done with the first draft of book number three. The goal is to have each book longer than the last so that's why I'm staggering posting, to give myself time for the heavier ones down the road. I'll post the first chapter of Witches of Heart within the next two weeks or sooner. If you have any questions drop a comment or hit me up at my Tumblr, ginger-in-a-fez. Once again thank you all so much for reading! I hope you liked it!


End file.
